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广告商或雇主可以利用个人的神经信号来获取自己的利益。
测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：
decipher [dɪˈsaɪfə(r)] v.解密
benign [bɪˈnaɪn] adj.善意的
prosthetic [prɒsˈθetɪk] n.假肢
unscrupulous [ʌnˈskruːpjələs] adj.不择手段
dystopian [dis'təupiən] adj.反乌托邦
granularity [grænjʊ'lærɪtɪ] n粒度
contentious [kənˈtenʃəs] adj.有争议的
electroencephalography [i'lektrəuen,sefə'lɔɡrəfi] n.脑电图
porthole [ˈpɔːthəʊl] n.炮眼
voyeurs [vwaɪˈjɜːz] n.偷窥者
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Imagine not being able to speak your mind, not even to ask for a glass of water. Now scientists have revealed technology that could one day speak it for you.
Researchers at Columbia University in New York have developed a “vocoder” that could eventually decipher, purely from brain activity, what a person wants to say and channel it through a speech synthesiser. The aim is to give an artificial voice to patients who, through injury or disease, have lost their own. The research is at an extremely early stage but, according to project leader Nima Mesgarani, “with the right technology, these people’s thoughts could be decoded and understood by any listener”.
The technology might one day be right, but there is no guarantee that user intent will stay benign. While brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are primarily designed to help the sick, they have the potential to be misused on the healthy. As the interest in “mind-reading technologies expands, we should turn our own grey matter to the overlooked ethical issue of neural privacy.
The Columbia research is one of several projects aiming to uncover how internal thought becomes action. Early attempts focused on using the power of thought to move a cursor across a computer screen. In 2017, scientists in Beijing progressed further down the mind-reading road: they were able to tell, crudely, what people were looking at, simply by analysing neural signals.
All work on the same principle: every human utterance, perception and action, has its beginnings in the messy crossfire of brain signals. The goal of a BCI is to detect the signals, decode them using algorithms, and then send relevant commands to a device that acts on the patient’s behalf. The proxy might be an artificial voice, or a prosthetic limb.
Current projects target patients with conditions such as paralysis or neurological diseases. The same techniques, however, offer a means of invading someone’s mind — and breaching the final frontier of personal privacy.
Imagine such power in the hands of the unscrupulous. Advertisers might spot the potential for mind-reading technology to gauge consumer delight and disgust, all the better to snare the valuable commodity of attention. Employers may wish to more accurately measure compliance and dissent among the company faithful.
We should not dismiss such dystopian projections as fanciful: technology has an unfortunate habit of serving unintended causes. Courses in “neuromarketing”, which uses techniques from neuroscience to deduce consumer preferences, already exist. Some employers are surgically inserting RFID chips— the technology used in contactless payment cards — in their underlings. The chips allow employees access to buildings and computers, but they also could permit unprecedented granularity in workplace surveillance.
Eran Klein, a neurologist and philosopher, and Katherine Pratt, a graduate student from the University of Washington, are among those who have sounded the alarm. In a 2017 article for The Conversation, they argued that the ethical issues raised by BCI deserved special attention: “Should we be able to keep our neural signals private? That is, should neural security be a human right?”
One focus of concern is a well-studied electroencephalography signal called P300. This “aha” spike, distinctive for each person, is generated when the brain registers something worth paying attention to, such as a familiar face in a crowd, a discordant note in a piece of music — or a PIN number. Once the anomaly is revealed, it takes about 300 milliseconds for the brain to notice it, hence the name of the signal. It forms the basis of “brain fingerprinting”, a highly contentious technique that purports to identify, for example, whether a suspect recognises a weapon or a crime scene.
While mind-reading technologies may be cumbersome for now, requiring the use of brain-scanning machines or wire-riddled caps, as well as explicit consent, things can change. Next-generation devices might acquire the capacity for covert detection. Who would bet against the rise of neuroscamming?
Neural privacy may become an asset to be traded, in the same way that we give up digital privacy to use online services. In a future threatened by automation, it could also become the cost of keeping a job. Reports emerged last year that some employees in China were having their emotions and moods monitored using “mind-reading” helmets.
Such are the dual consequences of brain-computer interfaces: a porthole that allows needy patients to connect with the outside world can become a peephole for voyeurs looking in the opposite direction.
The writer is a science commentator
请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：
A.It can predict what a person wants to say even when they are not thinking about it.
B.It can enable a person to read other people's mind without any additional devices.
C.It can decipher what a person wants to say and channel it through a speech synthesizer.
D.It can carry out a conversation with a person.
答案 (1)
A.Uncover how actions stimulate thoughts
B.Demystify the connection between brain and spirit
C.Find out the cause of some serious brain diseases
D.Figure out how internal thought becomes action
答案 (2)
A.As an example of technology serving unintended causes
B.As an example of technology serving the public
C.As an example of good learning resource
D.As an example of how technology inspired the young generation
答案 (3)
A.It is also known as the “aha” spike.
B.It forms the basis of “brain fingerprinting”.
C.It has the capacity for covert detection.
D.It is generated when the brain registers something worth paying attention to.
答案 (4)
(1) 答案：C. It can decipher what a person wants to say and channel it through a speech synthesizer.解释：Researchers at Columbia University in New York have developed a “vocoder” that could eventually decipher, purely from brain activity, what a person wants to say and channel it through a speech synthesizer.
(2) 答案：D. Figure out how internal thought becomes action解释：The Columbia research is one of several projects aiming to uncover how internal thought becomes action.
(3) 答案：A. As an example of technology serving unintended causes解释：We should not dismiss such dystopian projections as fanciful: technology has an unfortunate habit of serving unintended causes. Courses in “neuromarketing”, which uses techniques from neuroscience to deduce consumer preferences, already exist.
(4) 答案：C. It has the capacity for covert detection.