Our Telepathic Future

I know that the end of the year is traditionally time for looking to the past, but this story prompted me to take a few moments to consider the freaky electronic telepathy future that awaits us. The key quote from the story linked to above is -

“A Japanese research team has successfully processed and displayed images directly from the human brain…”

OK, they’re simple images, and it takes some time to study the individual brain in order to decode the electronic signals the eye sends to the visual cortex, nonetheless, they are projecting thoughts onto computer screens.

Combine this with the race to get out the first gamer “joystick” controlled by your brain, (Emotiv Systems thought they were going to have their headgear out by this Christmas, but the release has been pushed back to next year) and the future starts to look freaky indeed.

It’s not all about gaming, these brain-computer interface (BCI) headsets are used for moving wheelchairs and moving prosthetic limbs.

Here’s a demo of the Emotiv headset at work -

Meanwhile, researchers in Britain are using BCI to make beautiful music.

“Researchers at Goldsmiths, University of London have developed technology to translate thoughts into musical notes.”

Hitachi is also working on a computer peripheral that would be controlled by the brain.

Of course this also means long-distance control of robots.

“Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) has succeeded to make a humanoid robot locomote via data detected from cortical brain activity that transmitted through an internet interface between U.S.A and Japan in real time.”

So, what does a world look like where we can wear a telepathy cap that communicates to all of our home hardware and the Internet via wi-fi? Is this a Borg future or an awesome future? Is this all just vaporware, like the virtual reality dreams of the early 1990s? Or, will the ambient awareness of Twitter take an exponential leap in intimacy as we tele-tweet our constantly shifting emotional states?

Could 2009 be the year of the brain?