[Paleopsych] Rafal Smigrodzki: Neuroscience twist in Schiavo case

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2005 21:47:37 -0800
From: Rafal Smigrodzki <rms2g at virginia.edu>
To: wta-talk at transhumanism.org
Subject: [wta-talk] Neuroscience twist in Schiavo case

Quoting "Hughes, James J." <jhughes at changesurfer.com>:

>> A bioethicist friends notes:
>>
>> According to Judge Greer's order, one of the affidavits in the last
>> motion (along the affidavits about Terri Schiavo's alleged vocalization
>> of March 18, which, as the Judge points out, was not mentioned in the
>> motion of March 23) is from an unnamed "inventor of a technological
>> device that detects brainwaves and translates them to words."  The
>> affidavit, according to the order,  "described a device that would
>> allegedly permit a person such as Terri Schiavo to communicate "using
>> the modulated equivalent of prevocalized thoughts" which would then be
>> translated into words using pattern recognition software."

Rafal:

So far it is impossible to use EEG for vocalization or thought-reading, 
although a limited form of control through EEG (e.g. moving a cursor) has 
been achieved in persons with normal EEG. According to the court 
testimony, Schiavo has a non-reactive, very low-voltage EEG. So we have a 
double whammy - a guy claiming to achieve from non-existent input an 
output which so far was impossible to derive even from a high-quality 
input.

Total bunk.

Rafal