Facebook hiring 'mind readers' for secret project

A number of job adverts suggest that Facebook is taking social networking to a different level of science fiction.

The social networking giant has advertised for a Haptics Engineer, a Neural Imaging Engineer, a Signal Processing Engineer and a Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) Engineer – leading people to think Facebook is working on mind reading technology.

This is supported by each of the job descriptions. The roles are based in Facebook’s elusive ‘Building 8’ in California, where the team will “apply DARPA-style breakthrough development at the intersection of ambitious science and product development.”

Recruiters looking to fill the BCI role will need to find candidates with a PhD in “neuroscience, computer science, electrical engineering or related quantitative technical field.” Furthermore, they will need three of more years’ experience with “brain-computer interface technologies or other applications or machine learning methods to neuroimaging and/or electrophysiological data.”

Aside from the necessary education and experience, all the roles state that Facebook wants individuals who are “slightly impatient” and are “willing to face down their fear of failure to accomplish bold things.”

This isn’t the only indication that Mark Zuckerberg wants users to be able to read each other’s minds. In an hour-long Q&A session last year, the CEO said: “One day, I believe we'll be able to send full rich thoughts to each other directly using technology. You'll just be able to think of something and your friends will immediately be able to experience it too, if you'd like. This would be the ultimate communication technology.”