TED Community » Neema Aggarwal

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I'm passionate about

Neuroscience, Biomedical Engineering, Traveling, Languages

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  A comment on Conversation: Will mind-reading eventually become a reality and what are the implications for humanity?

  Apr 20 2013: Hi Lauren,
  The question you posed is both incredibly fascinating and incredibly horrifying. I personally do feel that as we map out the electrical signals in the brain and gather data on how the different signals are interpreted, we come closer to “reading people’s brains”. But at the same time, we do still have a long way to go. I would imagine we will start from just basic interpretation of what kind of emotions a person is feeling, happy, sad, angry, confused, etc… I say basic but of course this would be a feat of its own considering how complex emotions can be and how they manifest differently in each individual. Understanding exactly what a person is thinking is still far away, but I believe it could happen. That being said, it is interesting to imagine what that could mean for humanity. Used properly, this ability could benefit a lot of people. In terms of medical treatments, helping patients with dementia like you suggested could be very advantageous. It could be used in the justice system to glean truthful information about a case from a suspect or witness. But it could also be highly dangerous. Imagine what it could mean if abused by politicians, terrorists, or corrupt officials. I think we have a long time before such technology can be developed and trusted to exist in our society.
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  A reply on Conversation: Will making rockstars out of women in science get more girls interested in science/technology/engineering/math (i.e. STEM) fields?

  Apr 14 2013: Hi Hindi,
  I think you bring up a very relevant issue. Women are highly underrepresented in the fields of math, engineering, and science and I feel this should change. I think that although there are interesting science related programs out there for young students, they often have a more negative social perception. I remember in my middle school it was extremely embarrassing to be a girl on a math team or robotics team. Though some of it may just take time, I think the integration of women should not be taken lightly. If slowly the image of a female scientist or engineer could become someone inspiring, someone to look up to and aspire to be like, it could really make an impact. With the recent increase in successful tv reality shows, why not make one about a female scientist? As long as it includes all the drama, plot, and excitement of other tv shows it could really help introduce young girls to the idea of working in such a field at a young age.
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  A comment on Conversation: Is the heart overlooked when it comes to intelligence?

  Apr 14 2013: Hi Hadar,
  After learning more about the heart, I definitely feel the heart is a bit underrated when it comes to information processing. You mentioned evidence that the cariodelectromagnetic field can affect people several feet away and I think that is truly remarkable. It makes you really reconsider phrases like “the vibe coming from a person”. If the heart can transfer energy between human beings, that could have an enormous impact on the way we perceive human interactions. Perhaps the heart really can get an understanding of another person and sense certain features that our brain does not pick up on. There are many different types of intelligence and although the brain may be responsible for our primary source of knowledge interpretation, I believe there is a level of intelligence distributed throughout the body in ways we have yet to understand.
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  A comment on Conversation: How can we better harness our human capabilities to develop medical technology?

  Apr 5 2013: Hi Alison,
  I thought it was very interesting that you mentioned the biases that affect what to develop. I think there are a lot of factors that influence what is developed and some can be good while others can be bad. The desire to help those who do not have convenient access to health care and focusing on charitable outreach like Catherine Wong promotes the improvement of already designed technologies with the hopes of making them more available globally. The desire to solve medical problems and create new cures inspires lab work and testing to produce new technologies. Then there is also the desire to make money, which greatly affects which projects are considered financially beneficial. Profitable technologies will always get the most attention. All in all, the possibilities are endless and the motivations numerous. I believe human capabilities will continue to surprise us as new medical technology is developed.
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  A reply on Conversation: Do we rely too heavily on technology for medical diagnosis?

  Mar 31 2013: Hi Jasvin,
  Very interesting perspective. Do you think there could be a way to prevent doctors from ordering multiple tests without first studying the patient themselves? I wonder if any standards be implemented so that a doctor is spending enough time looking for the problem himself balanced with the information received from tests?
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  A reply on Conversation: Do we rely too heavily on technology for medical diagnosis?

  Mar 31 2013: Hi Hindi,
  I do agree the the ideal situation would be a perfect balance between machine diagnoses and a doctor's own hunches. And you're right that misdiagnosis can happen from a person as well as the machine. I wonder if there was some way to ensure that the balance remained without one side being weighted more heavily than it should?
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  A comment on Conversation: What good is being able to control our dreams?

  Mar 30 2013: Hi John,
  I thought your question about teaching ourselves to lucid dream and perhaps using our brain unknown ways is very interesting. Lucid dreaming does require practice, it’s a skill we can learn after working at it for a period of time; so maybe we can teach our brain other things as well? The brain is such an incredible entity, I feel there is so much more it can do that we just don’t know about. Our brains have an incredible capacity to learn and grow so with the right training, I’m sure we can accomplish a lot. I think dreams are always free no matter how hard we try to control them. Even during lucid dreaming, the dreams take us places we cannot go when fully conscious. Shilo Shiv Suleman stresses the importance of dreaming and how we must not lose the ability to imagine up fantasy worlds. I agree, I feel dreams are much more important than we often think because they allow our brain to create ideas in the most limitless way possible.
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  A reply on Conversation: Do we rely too heavily on technology for medical diagnosis?

  Mar 29 2013: Hello Jayprakash,
  Wow, that is really incredible. I wonder if that was just a gift or a real skill that could be taught and passed along. I agree with you that human nature is to protect ourselves from blame and perhaps that is why it is easier to let the machines make the difficult decisions rather than face them ourselves.
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  A reply on Conversation: Do we rely too heavily on technology for medical diagnosis?

  Mar 29 2013: Hi Kate,
  Very interesting! I have heard a lot about ancient techniques from Asian countries having been very accurate and useful for centuries. I wonder why we don't try and revisit some of those. Perhaps you're right, every aspect of our society has become so economically driven, hardly anything is developed unless it is monetarily beneficial.
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  A reply on Conversation: Do we rely too heavily on technology for medical diagnosis?

  Mar 28 2013: Hi Greg,
  We could consider it from a patients point of view as well? If you felt something was wrong in your body but the doctor said tests appeared to be normal, would that be enough for you? Or would you press for the doctor to consider his own intuition or experience and spend a greater length of time trying to find the problem?