Mark Zuckerberg’s mysterious secret division inside Facebook is purportedly working on technology that could be used to ‘read’ brain waves, according to various sources. The CEO has already stated the future of Facebook was telepathy.
Suspicion comes from the company’s recent job listings, which seek workers for a ‘neuroimaging’ and ‘electrophysiological data’ project to create “the communications platform of the future.”
An open position in the ‘Careers’ section of their main website is looking for a Ph.D. in Neuroscience for a two-year project that would bring this enigmatic product to fruition. Another asks for an engineer that can “develop audio signal processing algorithms.”
Zuckerberg has hinted this technology in the near past
Facebook has not released any official comments on the matter, neither has Mark Zuckerberg himself. However, this could be a direct response to remarks made by the CEO on previous occasions.
“One day, I believe we’ll be able to send full rich thoughts to each other directly using technology,” he said at a Q&A session in June 2015. “You’ll just be able to think of something and your friends will immediately be able to experience it too if you’d like.”
Mark Chevillet, a program manager for the Applied Neuroscience department at John Hopkins University, recently joined Facebook as a “technical project lead,” according to his LinkedIn profile.
What is the objective of Facebook’s secret project?
The company seeks a scientist who can help them develop mostly ‘non-invasive’ techniques for neuroimaging based on optical, RF (radio frequency), ultrasound, or any technology that does not include intervening a test subject physically.
Also, they want a haptics engineer that can “Lead, define, and develop haptics effects and haptics illusions in software and hardware.”
‘Haptics’ refers to any form of communication involving the sense of touch, similar to ‘optics,’ which includes the sense of sight. Haptic technology interfaces with a user via touch, for example, all of our smartphones today.
Haptic technology is also present in current developments such as VR, where a user ‘touches’ an object that exists in a virtual environment and then moves it around, for example. This job posting might give an idea of the hardware Facebook is trying to develop for neuroimaging.
Facebook has secret facilities and research groups
The company has many buildings that house unknown projects, the most famous being Building 17, which contains the ‘Area 404’ worksite. The building is not entirely a secret, as Facebook usually grants access to journalists, but its projects are the real mystery.
This current Facebook project appears listed for the ‘Building 8’ team, which is one of their less talked-about endeavors, headed by Regina Dugan, former chief of the Pentagon’s DARPA research facility.
Source: Business Insider
