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I interviewed at a BCI startup that wants to implant on the order of 10k light sensors around the brain in order to directly gather data. "Reading" thoughts is just their first goal, eventually they want to communicate bidirectionally.

I don't see how fMRI or any external device can approach the sensitivity, specificity, or resolution to "read" thoughts beyond the level of gross guesstimates, i.e., deception, sexual attraction, arousal, etc.

Furthermore, it seems necessary to understand peculiarities of a particular individual's brain would be a prerequisite to mapping functional observations into approximate thoughts.