3.01 | 10.01.18
Can thought-power control the world outside our heads? Thanks to new brain-machine interface technology, the answer is yes. But the real question is whether it can it help us control the world inside our heads.
In the Season 3 opener of Soonish we meet Ariel Garten, co-founder of Interaxon, a Canadian startup that’s one of the first to offer a consumer-ready neurofeedback device. Interaxon’s Muse headband reads brainwaves to help people with the sometimes vexing task of meditation. It points toward an era when may be able to control our brain states and share our thoughts directly with our computers, and with each other. And that has startling implications—not just for our capabilities as humans, but also for our privacy and individuality.
Featured guests: Ariel Garten, Sam Langer, Mary Lou Jepsen.
Mentioned In This Episode
CTV report on Interaxon’s installation at the 2010 Winter Olympics (YouTube)
Xconomy Voices Podcast, Episode 1: Mary Lou Jepsen (June 22, 2017)
Center for Responsible Brainwave Technologies
Additional Reading
Neuralink and the Brain’s Magical Future (Wait But Why)
Chapter Guide
0:00 Opening
0:33 Meditating by the Lake
3:06 Introducing Muse and Interaxon’s Ariel Garten
3:56 Electroencephalography
4:24 Interaxon Goes to the Winter Olympics
8:22 Measuring Brainwaves with EEG
11:36 An Introduction to Meditation, with Sam Langer
14:51 Using Muse to Strengthen the Muscle of Attention
17:02 The Consciousness Club Tries Muse
18:12 A Controlled Study of Muse
18:59 Thinking Through Brain-Machine Interfaces
22:18 The Coming Wave of Neural Interfaces, with Mary Lou Jepsen
25:09 The Center for Responsible Brainwave Technologies
26:28 Extending Our Agency
27:37 End Credits and Announcements
Notes
The Soonish theme is by Graham Gordon Ramsay. Additional music from Titlecard Music and Sound.
If you haven’t already, please rate and review Soonish on Apple Podcasts / iTunes! The more ratings we get, the more people will find the show. See applepodcasts.com/soonish
You can also support the show with a per-episode donation at patreon.com/soonish. Listener support makes all the difference!
Special thanks this week to Joseph Fridman, Ariel Garten, Mary Lou Jepsen, Sam Langer, and Mark Pelofsky.
