Mind Reading

In James chapter 1, we see how sin operates in our lives, and how its power progresses:
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.
14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.
15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

We're tempted when we are "drawn away" by our "own desires."  Those desires are cultivated by the thoughts that we allow to take root in our minds.  The enemy will attempt to deceive us and we can choose whether or not to accept what he is suggesting to us.  If we dwell on thoughts that are contrary to the truth of God and His nature, then we become vulnerable to the enemy's schemes.  We own those thoughts, which can easily develop into sinful actions.  We have to guard against the enemy's tactics and make sure our thinking lines up with God's standards.

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The Bible addresses the content and power of our thoughts in Philippians 4:
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;
7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy--meditate on these things.

The hearing went on and on and on - the founder of Facebook descending from his perch atop the social network to testify before members of Congress about privacy concerns that have come to the fore as of late.  One does certainly get the picture that what we once thought private really isn't, and that Facebook is woefully inadequate in protecting that information.

Now, there is technology that may even promote a notion that our very thoughts are not really private.

An article on The Blaze website starts out by saying:

Scientists have developed a new mind-reading machine that translates what you are thinking and instantly displays your thoughts as text, the Daily Mail reported.

The process is simple and surreal: electrodes are implanted in the brain, and electrical signals are sent to a computer.  The machine is allegedly able to take the vowels and consonants that we use to put sentences together and translate them into text on the computer screen.  Developers say it has a 90% accuracy rate.

The article states that there are noble uses here, saying:

Researchers hope the machine can assist medical patients with conditions that don’t allow them to speak or move.

The device was developed at the University of California and was featured in the Journal of Neural Engineering.

But, there are some concerns: "As the Daily Mail noted, there are fears the device could 'cause problems if secret thoughts are exposed accidentally.'"

The article quotes from a story on the website, The Sun:

Study leader David Moses said: “No published work has demonstrated real-time classification of sentences from neural signals. Given the performance exhibited by [the machine] in this work and its capacity for expansion, we are confident in its ability to serve as a platform for the proposed speech prosthetic device.”

And, as the story points out, "One year ago, the Daily Mail reported that a 'device that reads people’s minds through their brainwaves' could be linked to smart phones within the next several years."  As the writer of the article, Teri Webster, states: "our reality is that even our thoughts may not be our own."

Here you have a case of the contrast between light and dark: technology that holds potential to help people "speak or move;"  but, technology that can enable untrustworthy agents to actually monitor our very thoughts and to even share that information.

One of the first thoughts that came to mind, that I have translated into text - the conventional way, without the aid of electrodes, concerns the implications of our thoughts being monitored.  I guess, in a strange sense, we would have a higher level of motivation to control our thoughts and probably even to conceal the innermost thoughts that we are ashamed of.  Let's take that a step further - you do realize, your thoughts are being monitored!  By your Creator, Almighty God.

So, recognizing that, what are we doing to control the thoughts that we have?  The Bible speaks to the renewing of the mind in Romans 12, it shares criteria for acceptable thinking in Philippians 4, and 2 Corinthians instructs us to take thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ.  Temptation and sin operate through the gateway of our minds.  A thought, not properly processed, can result in an action.

The enemy of our souls recognizes this - it's been said that Satan cannot read our minds, but he can place errant thoughts in our minds, he is a master of the power of suggestion.  We have the capability to decide what thoughts we accept or reject.  While we cannot keep thoughts from entering, we can choose what to do with them.  And, we can, through the act of the will, launch thoughts that are consistent with God's Word.

I think it can be a challenge to think about this: if some electrode would monitor our thoughts and transfer them to text, that the output would be found to reflect God's Word and thought patterns that are consistent with His truth.