Style of language

The style of language in Nita Farahany’s TED talk “When technology can read minds, how will we protect our privacy?” is mostly formal.

We see this especially through her choice of words, which include many advanced phrases (eg. “perceived dissident action”, l. 8) and technical terms from the realms of neurology (eg. ll. 19-23) and digital technology. For example, she uses the quite complex term “electroencephalography, or EEG” (l. 22) without including a full explanation of what it means. She simply expects her audience to have a certain level of knowledge on the subject, or at least that they can figure it out from the context.

The formal style also comes across in the often complex sentence structure that Farahany uses in her presentation:

I worry that people will self-censor in fear of bei...