Cracking the Brain's Codes
From: MIT Technology Review - July / August 2014
By: Christof Koch and Gary Marcus

How does the brain speak to itself?

Will neuroscience ever discover a master code that allows us to interpret any
pattern of neural activity at will?

At stake is virtually every radical advance in neuroscience that we might be
able to imagine - brain implants that enhance our memories or treat mental
disorders like schizophrenia and depression, for example, and
neuroprosthetics that allow paralyzed patients to move their limbs. Because
everything that you think, remember, and feel is encoded in your brain in
some way, deciphering the activity of the brain will be a giant step toward
the future of neuroengineering.

Someday, electronics implanted directly into the brain will enable patients
with spinal-cord injury to bypass the affected nerves and control robots with
their thoughts. Future biofeedback systems may even be able to anticipate
signs of mental disorder and head them off. Where people in the present use
keyboards and touch screens, our descendants a hundred years hence may use
direct brain-machine interfaces.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/528131/cracking-the-brains-codes/

Link:
The Thought Experiment
http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/528141/the-thought-experiment/