# Neuroscientists May Never Read Thoughts Without Consent by John Horgan > “I believe neuroscientists will never have enough understanding of the neural code, the secret language of the brain, to read peoples' thoughts without their consent.” > **— John Horgan**, *2005 Edge Annual Question, stated belief* ## Sources and Context - **Direct publication and locator:** [John Horgan’s 2005 Edge Annual Question response](https://www.edge.org/response-detail/11175) — opening paragraph beginning “I believe neuroscientists will never.” - **Exact original excerpt:** “I believe neuroscientists will never have enough understanding of the neural code, the secret language of the brain, to read peoples' thoughts without their consent.” - **Context and editing:** The poster takes Horgan’s complete opening sentence, without insertion. The local representative extract begins at the next paragraph and describes what a complete neural-code solution could permit in principle, but his argument is that person-specific coding keeps thoughts partly private. The poster preserves “I believe” and his actual conclusion. - **Local Edge archive:** [[research/Edge 2005 Full Quotation Curation|Edge 2005 Full Quotation Curation]], response EDGE2005-037; its representative extract is a later supporting passage, not Horgan’s thesis sentence. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Consciousness Continuity|Consciousness Continuity]] - **Article:** [[articles/Information Persistence in Complex Systems|Information Persistence in Complex Systems]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Greatest Transformation in Human History|The Greatest Transformation in Human History]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Neuroscience|Neuroscience]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Neuroscience|Neuroscience]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “I believe neuroscientists will never have enough understanding of the neural code, the secret language of the brain, to read peoples' thoughts without their consent.” — John Horgan, 2005 Edge Annual Question, stated belief https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-john-horgan-neuroscientists-never-read-thoughts-without-consent ```