full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Nita Farahany: When technology can read minds, how will we protect our privacy?

Unscramble the Blue Letters

This may all sound great, and as a bioethicist, I am a huge proponent of empowering people to take charge of their own health and well-being by gnviig them access to irfnmotoian about themselves, including this irliedncbe new brain-decoding technology. But I worry. I worry that we will voluntarily or involuntarily give up our last bsoiatn of freedom, our mental privacy. That we will trade our brain activity for retebas or discounts on insurance, or free access to social-media anctoucs ... or even to keep our jobs. In fact, in China, the train drivers on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail, the buseist of its kind in the world, are required to wear EEG devices to monitor their biarn activity while driving. According to some news sources, in government-run factories in China, the workers are rieeuqrd to wear EEG ssernos to monitor their productivity and their emotional state at work. Workers are even sent home if their brains show less-than-stellar concentration on their jobs, or eamontiol agitation.

Open Cloze

This may all sound great, and as a bioethicist, I am a huge proponent of empowering people to take charge of their own health and well-being by ______ them access to ___________ about themselves, including this __________ new brain-decoding technology. But I worry. I worry that we will voluntarily or involuntarily give up our last _______ of freedom, our mental privacy. That we will trade our brain activity for _______ or discounts on insurance, or free access to social-media ________ ... or even to keep our jobs. In fact, in China, the train drivers on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail, the _______ of its kind in the world, are required to wear EEG devices to monitor their _____ activity while driving. According to some news sources, in government-run factories in China, the workers are ________ to wear EEG _______ to monitor their productivity and their emotional state at work. Workers are even sent home if their brains show less-than-stellar concentration on their jobs, or _________ agitation.

Solution

  1. brain
  2. giving
  3. rebates
  4. accounts
  5. sensors
  6. incredible
  7. required
  8. bastion
  9. busiest
  10. emotional
  11. information

Original Text

This may all sound great, and as a bioethicist, I am a huge proponent of empowering people to take charge of their own health and well-being by giving them access to information about themselves, including this incredible new brain-decoding technology. But I worry. I worry that we will voluntarily or involuntarily give up our last bastion of freedom, our mental privacy. That we will trade our brain activity for rebates or discounts on insurance, or free access to social-media accounts ... or even to keep our jobs. In fact, in China, the train drivers on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail, the busiest of its kind in the world, are required to wear EEG devices to monitor their brain activity while driving. According to some news sources, in government-run factories in China, the workers are required to wear EEG sensors to monitor their productivity and their emotional state at work. Workers are even sent home if their brains show less-than-stellar concentration on their jobs, or emotional agitation.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
brain activity 4
iranian government 3
iranian green 3
united states 3
human brain 3
mental privacy 3
social security 3
real time 2
eeg devices 2
wear eeg 2
security numbers 2
brain data 2
cognitive liberty 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
social security numbers 2

Important Words

  1. access
  2. accounts
  3. activity
  4. agitation
  5. bastion
  6. bioethicist
  7. brain
  8. brains
  9. busiest
  10. charge
  11. china
  12. concentration
  13. devices
  14. discounts
  15. drivers
  16. driving
  17. eeg
  18. emotional
  19. empowering
  20. fact
  21. factories
  22. free
  23. freedom
  24. give
  25. giving
  26. great
  27. health
  28. home
  29. huge
  30. including
  31. incredible
  32. information
  33. insurance
  34. involuntarily
  35. jobs
  36. kind
  37. mental
  38. monitor
  39. news
  40. people
  41. privacy
  42. productivity
  43. proponent
  44. rail
  45. rebates
  46. required
  47. sensors
  48. show
  49. sound
  50. sources
  51. state
  52. technology
  53. trade
  54. train
  55. voluntarily
  56. wear
  57. work
  58. workers
  59. world
  60. worry