Can our Thoughts be Hacked? 💜

Can our Thoughts be Hacked?

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19th April 2025 | The Times of India

In today’s Times of India, I came upon this astounding article that highlights the promises and the dangers of the rapidly advancing Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) technology.

In an engaging discussion, Rajesh PN Rao, Director of Neural Systems Laboratory at University of Washington, talks about the rapid advancements in neurotechnology along with its promises and dangers!

Brain-Computer Interface lets paralysed patients to text, email and browse the web using brain signals. The BCI also stimulates the spinal cord of a person with paralysis to help them walk, says Rajesh Rao.

When asked if BCIs can ‘hack’ our thoughts, Rajesh nods in the affirmative! 😊

Any device that runs software and is connected to the internet opens itself up to the possibility that a malicious actor could hack into it. BCIs are no exception. If the security protocol is not strong enough, the BCI could be hacked and a virus could, in principle, be planted.

A BCI that can both “read” and “write” the brain (record and stimulate) carries an even bigger risk – a future hacker could influence the user’s brain by biasing brain activity towards one choice or another, erase recently stored information by perturbing memory regions of the brain, or even write new information into the brain,

says Rajesh Rao.

Fine! Now let’s take our eyes off the Times of India, and Rajesh Rao!

Let’s for a moment visualise this well-known episode from the TV series Star Trek first shown in 1966, that had such a huge fan following, leading to numerous spin-off series, films, and other transmedial avatars.

In the episode “The Menagerie”, Captain Christopher Pike is shown as severely crippled by a radiation accident. 

(While observing a cadet training cruise aboard an old J-class freighter, the ship’s engine core suffered a baffle plate rupture. This results in several cadets being exposed to a large dose of delta radiation. Captain Pike, without hesitation, exposes himself to the deadly radiation in order to save the lives of the Starfleet cadets. Owing to the intense delta radiation exposure, he is left paralyzed, unable to speak, and badly scarred).

As a result, he is confined to a sophisticated life support chair, and he can only communicate through a light integrated into his wheelchair that allowed him limited interaction with the world through a system of lights and beeps (one for “yes,” two for “no”).

Commodore Mendez, the commander of Starbase 11, describes the condition of Captain Pike as follows –

“He is totally unable to move, Jim. His wheelchair is constructed to respond to his brain waves. He can turn it, move it forwards, backwards slightly. Through a flashing light he can say ‘yes’ or ‘no’. But that’s it, Jim. That is as much as the poor ever can do. His mind is as active as yours and mine, but it’s trapped in a useless vegetating body. He’s kept alive mechanically. A battery-driven heart. ...”

Here, the only way that Captain Pike can communicate with the environment is by means of a device that can read brain signals (aka biosignals) and convert them into control and communication signals.

Although in the 1960s, this was pure science fiction at its creative best, such a device is called a brain–computer interface (BCI).

A Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) then, is a system that establishes a direct communication pathway between the brain and an external device, such as a computer, prosthetic limb, or other technology.

Electrodes are surgically implanted directly into the brain tissue. This provides the highest quality signals. The measured brain signals are then processed and analyzed by computer algorithms.

These algorithms identify specific patterns in the brain activity that correspond to the user's intentions or commands. Once the brain signals are interpreted, the BCI system translates them into commands that are sent to the external device, allowing the user to control its functions.  

BCI technology is a rapidly evolving field with immense potential to improve the lives of individuals with disabilities and to revolutionize how humans interact with technology, enhancing human interaction with technology! and furthering our understanding of the brain itself.

In short, a BCI allows you to control things with your mind.

Lick (J. C. R. Licklider) is yet another seer of the sixties, (1960s) who pioneered pathbreaking ideas on Interactive Computing, thereby envisioning modern interactive computing in all its avatars. It is quite interesting to note that, even before the internet came into vogue, Lick had conceived the idea of a global computer network! And how!

In March 1960, Lick had published a seminal research paper, “Man-Computer Symbiosis,” in the Journal titled, IRE Transactions on Human Factors in Electronics.

In this paper, he proposes a close partnership between humans and computers to enhance human intellectual capabilities and decision-making.  

I quote –

The hope is that, in not too many years, human brains and computing machines will be coupled together very tightly, and that the resulting partnership will think as no human brain has ever thought and process data in a way not approached by the information handling machines we know today.  (Man-Computer Symbiosis, March 1960)

This blogpost intends to highlight the five key words that form the crux of Lick’s research paper.

Proposed

Envisioned

Conceived

Hoped

As we know today

An impactful research paper would then ‘propose’, ‘envision’, ‘conceive’, ‘hope’ and foresee the future that’s different from ‘how it is envisioned today’, in the respective thrust area.

Researching hence is NOT Reporting!

Many of our researchers today, are just content with passing off their ‘reporting’ as ‘researching’.

If so, then almost all our newspaper reporters should have been given their doctorates long time ago, ain’t they! 😊

A good research paper then, looks at a problem prospectively from the researcher’s unique perspective - by ‘proposing, envisioning, conceiving, foreseeing, hoping’, etc!

Now, coming back –

After Lick, we have an American-born British neurophysiologist, cybernetician, and robotician - Dr. Grey Walter who is credited with demonstrating one of the earliest reported demonstrations of a brain-computer interface in 1964.  

During a lecture, he connected electrodes to a patient’s brain (who was undergoing surgery for other reasons) and linked them to a slide projector. The patient was able to advance the slides using only their thoughts.  

Although he presented this insightful work to a group called the Oster Society in London, unfortunately [unlike Lick], Dr. Walter did not publish this principal step forward.

As a result, there was little progress in BCI research for almost four decades after that. Only a dozen labs were engaged in serious BCI research. Only after the year 2010, did BCI research really gather steam.

So the takeaway from this blogpost is simply this –

Lick had a unique, overpowering idea within him. He analysed this idea, researched on it further, and published it. As a result for the next many years, related research flourished.

However, Dr. Grey, although he too had such overpowering ideas welling up within, he failed to publish the same in journals or books, resulting in a stagnation of research in the field for more than forty years from then on!

Speaks to the importance of having your unique thoughts and ideas published in scholarly research papers as and when they well-up within you! 😊

PS: You may want to read our past post on How to Identify a Good Conference/Seminar? HERE on our blog.

Works Cited

Bernhard Graimann, et al. Ed. Brain–Computer Interfaces: Revolutionizing Human–Computer Interaction. London: Springer, 2010.