Boston University and Japan's ATR Computational Neuroscience department have done some experiments for proof of concept that it would be possible for the brain to learn through a sort of 'brainwave induction' whereby the learner would have to make no conscious effort to develop skills and knowledge. Simply inducing the correct brain patterns corresponding to activities would, I assume with practice, teach that skill or knowledge in another person's mind.
The researchers were able to "use decoded functional magnetic resonance imaging to induce brain activity patterns to match a previously known target state." In other words, a person seeking to learn a topic would watch a computer screen and have her brain patterns modified to match those of a person who already knows the content or how to do something.
Although it's certainly exciting in the sense that it might allow an adult with a fully formed brain to learn additional things at minimal time expenditure it raises questions of what form education is lost. All slow processes incur a certain amount of introspection and reflection on the part of the learner and this would be lost with instantaneous induction of knowledge. All the side-effects of a combined, social education - the type of things that PTA's and government think tanks bang on about - wouldn't be a part of the learning process, even if there was one.
What if cognitive therapy was combined with this learning, and the full mental and emotional maturity of an adult was uploaded into a child as young as 5 or even just a few months?
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