The Next Frontier: Using Thought to Control Machines

    Technologies are often billed as transformative. For William Kochevar, the term is justified. Mr Kochevar is paralysed below the shoulders after a cycling accident, yet has managed to feed himself by his own hand. This {#blank#}1{#/blank#} progress is partly thanks to electrodes, implanted in his right arm, which stimulate muscles. But the real magic lies higher up. Mr Kochevar can control his arm using the power of thought. His intention to move is {#blank#}2{#/blank#} in neural(神经的) activity in his motor region; these signals are detected by implants in his brain and {#blank#}3{#/blank#} into commands to activate the electrodes in his arms.

    An ability to decode thought in this way may sound like science fiction. But brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) like the BrainGate system used by Mr Kochevar provide evidence that mind-control can work. Researchers are able to tell what words and images people have heard and seen from neural activity alone. Information can also be encoded and used to stimulate the brain. Over 300, 000 people have cochlear(耳蜗的) implants, which help them to hear by {#blank#}4{#/blank#} sound into electrical signals and sending them into the brain. Scientists have "{#blank#}5{#/blank#}" data into monkeys heads, instructing them to perform actions via electrical pulses.

    As our Technology Quarterly in this issue explains, the pace of research into BCIs and the scale of its ambition are {#blank#}6{#/blank#}. Both America's armed forces and Silicon Valley are starting to focus on the brain. Facebook dreams of thought-to-text {#blank#}7{#/blank#}. Kernel, a startup, has $100m to spend on neurotechnology. Elon Musk has formed a firm called Neuralink; he thinks that, if humanity is to survive the arrival of artificial intelligence, it needs an upgrade. Entrepreneurs imagine a world in which people can communicate using thoughts, with each other and with machines, or acquire {#blank#}8{#/blank#} abilities, such as hearing at very high frequencies.

    These powers, if they ever materialise, are decades away. But well before then, BCIs could open the door to wonderful new {#blank#}9{#/blank#}. Imagine stimulating the visual region to help the blind, making new neural{#blank#}10{#/blank#} in stroke victims or monitoring the brain for signs of depression. By turning the firing of neurons into a resource to be used, BCIs may change the idea of what it means to be human.

    UNIQLO's founder tries to find a way to beat Zara and H&M

    When asked what guides his vision of UNIQLO, Tadashi Yanai, its founder and chief executive, pulls off the shelf the 1987 autumn/winter collection catalogue of Next, a mass-market British retailer. All of the clothes are so {#blank#}1{#/blank#}, he says, that they could be worn today. While Zara of Spain and H&M of Sweden follow fashion trends without having any original thought, UNIQLO of Japan {#blank#}2{#/blank#} to timeless basics.

    Mr. Yanai has a/an {#blank#}3{#/blank#} base at home from which to develop into his Western competitors' main markets of Europe and America. But instead his {#blank#}4{#/blank#} remains Asia. "Asia is the engine of growth today," he says, pointing to the millions of consumers across the {#blank#}5{#/blank#} who are reaching the middle class. UNIQLO will open its first shop in India this year and is considering {#blank#}6{#/blank#} into Vietnam and other countries (it has already opened networks of shops in Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand).

The success or not of UNIPLO's overseas operations {#blank#}7{#/blank#} greatly to investors at home. Fast Retailing's shares — Mr. Yanai owns just over 20% of the firm — have been rising since 2015, nalysts estimate, largely owing to its international expansion and improved logistics (物流). At home the firm is closing stores because the population is {#blank#}8{#/blank#}. Last year UNIQLO's international profits overtook its {#blank#}9{#/blank#} sales for the first time and its foreign operation profits almost equaled its Japanese equivalent.

    Though they are very different markets, Europe and America offer a cautionary tale. UNIQLO in America struggled outside the big cities of the east and west coasts. Growth in America remains {#blank#}10{#/blank#} for UNIQLO both there and in Europe. However, Mr. Yanai, an enthusiastic fan of globalization, is confident that he can guide UNIQLO through the changes needed.

    Today, the events {#blank#}1{#/blank#} in realistic-looking or-sounding video and audio recordings need never have happened. They can instead be {#blank#}2{#/blank#} automatically, by powerful computers and machine-learning software. The catch-all term for these computational productions is "deepfakes".

    The term first appeared on Reddit, a messaging board, as the username for an account which was producing {#blank#}3{#/blank#} videos. An entire community {#blank#}4{#/blank#} up around the creation of these videos, writing software tools that let anyone automatically {#blank#}5{#/blank#} one person's face onto the body of another. Reddit shut the community down, but the technology was out there. Soon it was being applied to political {#blank#}6{#/blank#} and actors.

    Tools for editing media {#blank#}7{#/blank#} have existed for decades—think Photoshop. The power and peril of deepfakes is that they make fakery cheaper than ever before. Before deepfakes, a powerful computer and a good chunk of a university degree were needed to produce a realistic fake video of someone. Now some photos and an Internet connection are all that is required.

    The consequences of cheap, widespread fakery are likely to be {#blank#}8{#/blank#}, albeit slow to unfold. Plenty worry about the possible impact that believable, fake footage of politicians might have on civil society—from a further loss of trust in media to the {#blank#}9{#/blank#} for electoral distortions. These technologies could also be deployed against softer targets: it might be used, for instance, to bully classmates by creating imagery of them in embarrassing situations. In a world that was already saturated with {#blank#}10{#/blank#} imagery, deepfakes make it plausible to push that even further.

Why Dutch Officials Want You to Forget the Country of Holland

The Dutch nation has long been dealing with its identity crisis. For decades, the government used "Holland" and "the Netherlands'' {#blank#}1{#/blank#}to describe the country known for its iconic canals, tulip (郁金香)fields and windmills.

Rut starting from Jan, I, all official government communications and{#blank#}2{#/blank#}materials will use the Netherlands as its name.

The government has been working on a campaign that might{#blank#}3{#/blank#}the country's image in the face of growing international competition for the past 18 months, said Ingrid de Beer, the head of the public diplomacy section in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "Our international image faces some challenges," she said. Research showed that many people do not know of the Netherlands or have {#blank#}4{#/blank#}concepts of the country. Young people, particularly those in countries farther away, are unfamiliar with the country.

The Kingdom of the Netherlands consists of 12 provinces, two of which — Noord (North) Holland and Zuid (South) Holland make up Holland. Amsterdam, which {#blank#}5{#/blank#}about) 9 million travelers annually, and Keukenhof, one of the world's largest flower gardens and a popular attraction, are both in the Holland region.

The country's tourism board,{#blank#}6{#/blank#}to handle millions of tourists, stopped promoting its most famous attractions in favor of trying to encourage travelers to go to lesser-known destinations, according to a 2019 report. By 2030. the report predicted, the Netherlands could see {#blank#}7{#/blank#}of up to 42 million tourists - an enormous number for a country of 17 million.

The region of Holland has{#blank#}8{#/blank#}contributed the most to the country's economy and wealth, resulting in its name commonly being used to indicate the entire country.

But not anymore, the Dutch government insists. "We are fully aware that internationally, a strong image of the Netherlands contributes to achieving political objectives, promoting trade, attracting talent, investment and tourists and encouraging cultural and scientific {#blank#}9{#/blank#}," Ms. de Beer said.

Part of the campaign includes an updated logo, a "NL"{#blank#}10{#/blank#}to look like an orange-tulip, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The logo replaces the "Holland tulip/ which was created by the tourism board 25 years ago and used to promote the country.