It's
a
____________________
February
afternoon
,
and
I'm
sitting
in
a
hospital
room
in
downtown
Albany
,
New
York
,
as
a
team
of
white
-
jacketed
technicians
____________________
about
the
bed
of
a
40
-
year
-
old
single
mother
from
Schenectady
,
named
Cathy
.
And
they
are
getting
ready
to
push
the
outer
bounds
of
computer
-
aided
?
mind
reading
.
?
They
are
attempting
to
____________________
?
imagined
speech
.
?
I
have
been
led
here
by
Gerwin
Schalk
,
a
____________________
,
Austrian
-
born
neuroscientist
,
who
has
promised
to
show
me
just
how
far
he
and
other
____________________
codebreakers
have
travelled
since
that
day
decades
ago
when
David
Hubel
and
Torsten
Wiesel
made
history
by
listening
in
?
and
decoding
?
the
patterns
of
____________________
firing
in
a
cat's
visual
cortex
.
Cathy
is
epileptic
and
plans
to
undergo
brain
surgery
to
try
to
remove
the
portion
of
her
brain
that
is
the
source
of
her
____________________
.
Three
days
ago
,
doctors
lifted
off
the
top
of
Cathy's
skull
,
and
placed
117
tiny
____________________
directly
onto
the
right
surface
of
her
naked
cortex
so
they
could
monitor
her
brain
activity
and
map
the
target
area
.
While
she
waits
,
she
has
volunteered
to
participate
in
Schalk's
research
.
Now
,
next
to
my
chair
,
Cathy
is
____________________
up
in
a
motorized
bed
.
The
top
of
Cathy's
head
is
____________________
in
a
stiff
,
plaster
-
like
,
mold
of
bandages
and
surgical
tape
.
And
a
thick
jumble
of
mesh
-
covered
wires
____________________
from
the
opening
at
the
top
of
her
skull
.
It
flops
over
the
back
of
her
hospital
bed
,
drops
down
to
the
ground
and
snakes
over
to
a
cart
holding
$250
,
000
worth
of
boxes
,
amplifiers
,
____________________
and
computers
.
An
attendant
gives
a
signal
,
and
Cathy
focuses
on
a
monitor
sitting
on
the
table
in
front
of
her
as
a
series
of
single
words
____________________
in
a
female
monotone
from
a
pair
of
nearby
speakers
.
