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Quantum physics just solved one of the great paradoxes of time

travel
Science!By Ryan Whitwam Sep. 7, 2014 11:35 am

Cell phones are a pretty convenient way to send messages to other

people, but it would be a lot easier to just think messages at them.
Telepathy is still relegated to the realm of science fiction, but an
international team of researchers have gotten one step closer to
making it a reality. Using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS),
scientists have managed to transmit words from one persons brainto
another 5,000 miles away.
The experiment consisted of four participants at a time, one of which
was assigned to be the brain-computer interface. The other three
were all acting as receivers for the signal. The person interface with
the computer was shown the words Ciao and Hola translated to
binary. They were instructed to envision moving their hands for a 1
and their feet for a zero. They didnt have to actually move anything,
though. The brain activity for each action was recorded and sent over
the internet to the other three participants.

The message was fed to each of the receivers through a TMS

headset. The magnetic field produced by this contraption can
increase brain activity, and in this case it was directed at the visual
cortex. The subject would see the binary string (as output by the TMS
headset) as a pattern of bright flashing lights in their peripheral
vision. If light appeared in one location, it was a 1, and at another it
was a 0. An EEG captured the information from the brain to analyze.
After assembling the code, researchers found the word was transmitted
successfully.
The technology needed to do this isnt really new, but the precision
required to filter out all the noise and properly stimulate the brain
without invasive techniques is still very advanced. It might be
possible one day to think a message and have it transmitted over the
internet to someone elses brain. Of course, that raises the possibility
of brain spam. Youll probably need a pretty good filter.
Tags:

Biology
brain
internet
neurology
science
Telepathy

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