Researchers from the Human-centric Artificial Intelligence Centre at the University of Technology Sydney have developed a portable, non-invasive system that can turn silent thoughts into text.
In a world-first, researchers from the GrapheneX-UTS Human-centric Artificial Intelligence Centre at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) have developed a portable, non-invasive system that can decode silent thoughts and turn them into text.
The technology could aid communication for people who are unable to speak due to illness or injury, including stroke or paralysis. It could also enable seamless communication between humans and machines, such as the operation of a bionic arm or robot.
Summary: Researchers created a revolutionary system that can non-invasively convert silent thoughts into text, offering new communication possibilities for people with speech impairments due to illnesses or injuries.
The technology uses a wearable EEG cap to record brain activity and an AI model named DeWave to decode these signals into language. This portable system surpasses previous methods that required invasive surgery or cumbersome MRI scanning, achieving state-of-the-art EEG translation performance.
This is the concept behind mind uploading – the idea that we may one day be able to transition a person from their biological body to a synthetic hardware. The idea originated in an intellectual movement called transhumanism and has several key advocates including computer scientist Ray Kurzweil, philosopher Nick Bostrom and neuroscientist Randal Koene.
The transhumanists’ central hope is to transcend the human condition through scientific and technological progress. They believe mind uploading may allow us to live as long as we want (but not necessarily forever). It might even let us improve ourselves, such as by having simulated brains that run faster and more efficiently than biological ones. It’s a techno-optimist’s dream for the future. But does it have any substance?
The feasibility of mind uploading rests on three core assumptions.
At the most recent H+ Academy discussion and debate on the topic of “anti-transhumanist” writings (video below), several transhumanists suggested that we reclaim “transhumanism” from the obfuscations and misrepresentations of the original meaning of transhumanism as a philosophy and worldview.
How did this happen? Over the years, there have been many “opinions” about what transhumanism is or isn’t. These opinions could be personal interpretations of the philosophy, some of which may or may not be true. While diversity is welcome and new ideas are highly valued, the philosophy of transhumanism does have principles that form the core of its meaning. With a lot of leeway for opinion, interpretations can go in directions that are counter to transhumanism. Some of the more extreme opinions have caused a flood of anti-transhumanist bias and even hate. This is not what we want.
What can we do? We need to make it very clear what transhumanism is and is not. And we need to state this publicly and make it available to everyone.
Listen now (66 mins) | If you would like to support this podcast, click here. Max More is a philosopher, futurist, and former CEO of Alcor Life Extension Foundation. He is currently Director of Communications at Biostasis Technologies. Max wrote the first definition of “Transhumanism” in its modern sense.