I love science fiction stuff. I of course grew up watching sci-fi movies and pretty much all of the sci-fi shows, annoying my mother and father with ideas of fantasy worlds and supernatural creatures. I have heard a lot of people say this, but I mean it when I say one of my favorite movies is “Inception.” And as it turns out, the ideas behind that movie are more real than you think.
According to a new study published in “Current Biology,” scientists at the University of California at Berkeley have found a way to see the pictures people visualize in their minds (keep in mind this new development is far away from perfection). The research subjects were shown a movie trailer while the researchers used MRI scanners and computers to record the brain activity.
They then (working backwards) “used the pattern of brain activity to predict and recreate the images that subjects were watching.” Basically, the subjects create the movie trailers in their own minds, and scientists get to see it. That’s sweet!
Apparently this is the first time in history actual moving images have been recorded.
As a nerd, I can safely say this prospect is absolutely fantastic. All of those sci-fi thrillers we watched featuring related ideas, the ones we swore were reality even though the ideas were so farfetched — good news, fellow nerds. They weren’t.
Take it, Mom and Dad!
It is amazing how far technology has come over the years. When you think of science fiction writers and all they have dreamt up, what if some of the ideas were not so farfetched? Let’s not get too carried away; fiction is still fiction. But some people out there can relate to the notion science is not always fiction. And some science fiction becomes … science fact.
But the best news of all, this new development could eventually help us communicate with comatose patients, stroke victims or even people with cerebral palsy — people that do not have a voice to communicate. We will finally be able to communicate to the people we know and love that suffer from these things.
Yes, this technology is many years away from being perfect, decades, even. This is only the first sign of the development and it is still in early stages. The point is it gives some people a little bit of hope. It gives the fathers, mothers, daughters and sons hope to communicate with their loved ones.
But what does this mean for the future? We are years away from finding that out. All I do know is some of us nerds can sleep soundly knowing this small piece of science fiction will eventually become a reality.