Practical Telepathy: The Science & Engineering of Mind-Reading

http://timeandquantummechanics.comPractical Telepathy/Capclave/DC/September 29th, 2018
Practical Telepathy
John Ashmead

You must remember
this
• A brief history of
telepathy
• Mind is what brain
does
• What is
“telepathy”?

A brief history of
Telepathy
• Mentalism
• Slan
• Rhine
• Side-band information

Mentalism
• Cartesian Dualism
• Astral Plane
• Brain is a house,
Mind is just a renter

Slan
• Like a broad
band receiver
• Tendrils (like
antennae)
• Scares
neighbors

Rhine & Zener cards

Smile when you say
that!
• Micro expressions
• Crinkle by the eyes
• Botox

Mind is what brain
does
• Phrenology
• Spike in the head
• Neurology
• The Penﬁeld homonculus

Things that go Bump
in the Head
• Phrenology
• One lobe/one
function?

Spike in the head
• Iron bar rammed
thru his head
• Didn’t kill
• But made a
profound change
in behavior
• “no longer Gage”

Neurology
• The case of the color-
blind painter
• The Last Hippie

Penfield’s
Homunculus

what is “Telepathy”?
• Extrasensory
perception?
• Or merely
unexpected
perception?
whatis
telepathy?

Present
• Telescopes into the
mind
• A Team of Rivals
• Wide-open two way

Telescopes into the
Mind
• Functional Magnetic
Resonance Imaging
(fMRI)
• Electroencephalogram
(EEG)
• Transcranial Magnetic
Stimulation (TMS)
• Many others

Functional Magnetic
Resonance Imaging (fMRI)
• Monitor oxygen
ﬂow to neurons
• Let’s you see the
dynamics
• But a bit slow
compared to speed
of thought

Electroencephalogram
(EEG)
• Good time
resolution
• Poor space
resolution
• Inexpensive
• Mobile
• Joysticks

Trans-Cranial Magnetic
Stimulation (TMS)
• Non-invasive
• But lets you create waves of
activity in the brain
• For depression,
• Locked-in patients,
• Asperger’s!

KISS/John Robison
• “I guess I would learn to make friends with the
machines before I made friends with other
people”
• Something seemed to have “unlocked” in himself
• “I knew that people could display signs of crazed
anger. But if you asked about more subtle
expressions—like, I think you’re sweet or I
wonder what you’re hiding or I’d really like to
do that or I wish you’d do this—I had no idea
about things like that.”

Team of Rivals
• The impossible fast ball
• Emergent consciousness
• Advanced loopiness
• Prediction machine
• Thinking fast & slow

The impossibility of
hitting a Fast ball
• 400 ms to plate
• 500 ms to plan
response

Emergent
Consciousness
• 80 billion
neurons,
• 10000 synapses
per neuron,
• And
continuously
rewiring itself!

Advanced Loopiness
• Self-modifying
code
• Turning oneself
into a high
performing robot
• Robot is good

Prediction machine
• Realtime
categorization
• Preferably using
automated learning

Thinking
fast & slow
• Instinct
• Reason
• Reason gets
a veto

Wide Open
Two Way
• Reading thoughts
• Prostheses
• Chips in the brain
• Mind videos
• Two way mind to mind
communication

Hawking/Reading
Thoughts
• Predictive
• Latest
version was
monitoring
his brain
waves

Sight for the Blind,
movement for Paralyzed
• BCI - Brain Computer
Interface
• Bypass nerve damage
• Speciﬁc to patient

A Taste of Sight
• Camera in
sunglasses
• Computer
converts to low-
res gray scale
• Image recreated
on electrodes
• User feels images
on tongue
(electriﬁed spit)

Mind Video
• Memories are
not video
• Can monitor,
interpret,
• and then
recreate
• But very
speciﬁc
• http://
gallantlab.org

Rat Telepathy
• One rat gets the
information
• The other rat is
connected by
electrodes
• And can use that
information

Mind the Gap
• What doors does
this open?
• What could
possibly go
wrong?
• How do we
manage our
minds?

What doors
will this open?
• Communication &
Cooperation
• Biofeedback
• Theory of mind

Communication &
Cooperation
• Augmented reality
• Extended self
• Communicating
with “locked-in”
people

Biofeedback

Theory of mind
• Imitation
is the
ultimate
test
• Is there a
them
there?

It’s a good life

Mind Mgmt
• The knowledge
illusion
• Inside Out
• The Future of the
Mind

• We know less than
we think we do,
• We treat our circle
of experts as if they
are part of our own
head,
• Which is mostly
helpful.

Turning the mind
inside out

The Future of the Mind
• TMS & Asperger’s
• Biofeedback,
dopamine, & cocaine
• A taste for sight
• The Google glass is
half full
• The Mind Frontier

Parting
Thoughts
• You are way more
complicated than you
thought,
• Continually building &
rebuilding your unique self,
• Unique but able to
communicate with others
equally unique,
• Which is hard work,
• And what makes us human!

References
• Incognito — Eagleman
• Thinking Fast & Slow
— Hahnemann
• The Future of the
Mind — Kaku
• NeuroLogic —
Sternberg
• The Knowledge
Illusion — Sloman &
Fernbach

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