Would it implode?

Let me (attempt to) explain what I mean by this...

We're just beginning to explore details about the brain that were never accessible in the past. I'm pretty sure that something like a brain scan will develop to the point (maybe in the next decade or two) where we will be able to "see" into a subject's brain with great accuracy. Now, if one were to use a tool like this on their own brain, would it result in the same type of "infinite-mirror" effect that you see when you open up a camera window on your computer screen?

Using the contents of your thoughts to control the contents of your thoughts...weird stuff.

For a variety of reasons I highly doubt this. Probably the most fundamental is that the effect you describe is achieved by having the representation match the thing being represented. I think it is quite unlikely that this would be the case for how we would store a picture of our brain in the brain itself. Even if this were not the case, it is almost certainly beyond human capacity to maintain a full image of their own brain with the resolution necessary for this to work in anything but the most coarse way for a couple steps down your ladder.

Nah. It would only happen if you tried to reconstruct what you're seeing in real-time and then display that on a screen.

I'm not sure I really know what you mean - I guess when you mention the "infinite mirror" thing you mean something like when you point a v-cam directly at the monitor it's hooked up to? Sort of 'visual feedback loop'. Any case, it sort of depends what you mean IMO. If the machine-output is very similar to the brain-input (IYKWIM), and the machine-output is displayed visually, say with colour-coding, then maybe something like that would happen, though I doubt it. Presumably the only part of your brain affected by the machine-output would be the parts that deal with looking at stuff, analysing stuff, etc, so the whole-brain-output would only (via machine-input then machine-ouput then brain-input) affect part of the brain.

you're over thinking this

A technology similar to this has been available since around 2004. Its called rtfMRI (rt=real time), The work is being done by a company called omneuron. They've found some success working with pain patients. They watch an image of the activations occurring in their brain in real time and they learn to control them and in turn control their pain. They are in the process of recruiting people around Menlo Park in Cali who want to try to manage their pain in a non-invasive way. There is no camera to actually see the thoughts in a physical representation, however they do learn to "control" them.

Here's a link with the head of the project giving a 4 minute TED presentation about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdFJOcaVDYU

Here's a link to the actual full scientific write up they did.

http://www.pnas.org/content/102/51/18626.full


Note- None of the people's brains exploded.

The neurofeedback stuff is awesome, and sadly, expensive. Even a simple EEG headset is ~$1000. But over time, hopefully better and cheaper techniques will become more widely available, and this can open all kinds of new avenues. Plenty of people are anticipating a new hobby of "brain hacking" (even if it will have to be indirect at first).

I believe the contents of your thoughts are partly determined by things outside the brain, so scanning just your brain won't tell us what your thoughts are.