Neal Stephenson and a Big X
The Google X site just went live.
I suggest starting with Mary Lou Jepsen's talk on reading the mind (HD version). From many fMRI scans, where seeing and imaging something is fundamentally similar in brain blood flow effects, they can create a "mental map" of correlates with elements of images seen. From this composite, and a bit of machine learning, they can then present a new image, and from the fMRI data alone recreate a fairly spooky rendition of what is being seen.
I would love to run the tape while dreaming.
This mind-reading requires a clunky fMRI today, but others are working on a radically different way to export the image: running neurons in reverse... and expressing the image on the retina to be read externally.
This led the guy next to me to say "guys are screwed."
In this photo, we have Neal Stephenson, another neuromancer, who inspired some of my photo captions in years past — Snow Crash and Diamond Age.