Mind reading

It's not that far-fetched-There's been studies that have predicted the actions of monkeys in simple games shortly before they actually start the actions. I believe a brain scan was used for the prediction - I searched around a bit to find a reference/description of the study but didn't find it. Perhaps someone else has?The closest I found (but NOT the study mentioned above): http://www.dukemednews.org/news/article.php?id=7266Also, brain scans (I believe PET?) have been used to visualize regional brain activity in humans in real-time, associated with exercises in language, memory, emotionality. In one memorization exercise (this was on Scientific American) the brain scan could predict whether or not the subject would actually remember information, on a piece by piece basis.This is a much more simplistic mode than outputting its contents, but it's a step in that direction. If at present a diagnostic test will reveal that a subject is angry, maybe in the near future one will reveal that the subject is angry-at-their-boss.

Hey Yaro, I did pick up The Age of Spiritual Machines (from a discount bin for a couple of bucks) and was so unimpressed I couldn't finish it, which is a rarity for me, especially since it is an interesting subject.Kurzwell started with some historical meanderings based in fact that really had nothing to do with "spiritual" machines, and then tried to use it as some sort of foundation for conjecture that seemed little more than poor sci-fi. I think it is also at least five years old by now, so if may already be dated. If you're really interested at least read a few random pages of the thing before spending your money on it.On the same subject, but definitely sci-fi, is a short novel called China Mountain Zhang that I would recommend (the author escapes me now...) Within the novel there are engineers that interface their brains directly with computers - the part that I thought unique was that the engineers essentially meditated, and the computer recorded their meditation. Even if they were able to only conceive of an incredibly intricate design for a split second before losing their concentration, the design would be retained by the computer.An exciting concept, much so more to me than Johnny Mnemonic and clones....