Today, let’s get right to the heart of the matter. The Brain.

I think at one time or another, everyone has wanted some form of psychic power, be it telepathy and the ability to read/see/hear other people’s thoughts, to some form of -kinesis: movement via the power of the mind, at varying levels.

As we’re not X-men like mutants, or residents in the city of Rapture, such powers  will never be ours thanks to universal laws such as the conservation of energy. You can blame James Prescott Joule for this. Also for making you fat.

We can do the next best thing though, and have computers do this all for us at the flick of a brain switch! I’m sure you’ve all seen Neon Genesis Evangelion by now. If you haven’t, you’re dead to me. Those of you still among the living (to me) are aware that the insanely large robots (which are actually clones of one of the pilot who’s a clone of god… there, I’ve spoilt it for those of you who should now be spinning in graves so fast I could attach magnets and use you as a renewable energy source) are actually controlled by their thoughts/brainwaves. This is the reason Shinji being in Asuka’s EVA kind of fucks up the control system, as Asuka thinks in German and Shinji in Japanese. Regardless, direct brain interfaces are the second most popular form of controlling robots in anime, directly after screaming really loudly and changing the pilot’s hair style.

And we are officially a step closer to making this control system a reality.

If you’re a sad old git like myself (age 26 at time of writing), you may remember the Atari Mindlink control system. Using the amazing computational power of the 80s, it basically gave you a very bad headache and cold sweats. It worked using ElectroEncepheloGraphy… it’s just that that shit was too expensive for regular consumer electronics at the time, so they cheaped out.

Skip forward 20 years and you can now buy games that work on the exact same principal because consumer electronics are cheap now.

Ever wanted to be a Jedi? Well, you’re a loser, but your training starts now with the Force Trainer (psych! it’s actually just more EEG meters and a fan that works harder as you do).

Alternatively, you’re not so sad and pathetic as to attempt to live through a 40 year old SciFi series, and you’re more of an athletic type. Well, Ping-Pong has also made the transition… Or is it shuffle puck / air hockey? Whatever! It’s MindPong! And it requires the kind of serenity that one will never achieve without living in Tibet in an orange robe for several years.

But really, neither of these take us any closer to piloting giant robots and taking revenge on people that picked on us in school… Or do they?

No.

They don’t.

But this new mental interface discovery from the Wadsworth Center in New York might.

The Brain Computer Interface Research & Development team (BCI2000) have been trying to get direct neural interfaces working, without the needs for drilling holes in ones skull. They are actually reaching a fair degree of success, including spending 18 minutes to write a Twitter message… without the use of their hands.

They’ve also managed a fair few other things, which you can view here.

Perhaps the most exciting of all of these is the direct Brain to Brain communication – It’s effectively telepathy.

This leads me to my inevitable questioning of the hideous future that so far involves hideous armies of death dealing robot monkeys, and sexy ladies that could tear your arm off whack it in their own stumpy socket:

1. Most people think on multiple levels – When direct thought to text/voice/control becomes possible, what level of error correction is going to be required to ensure the simian robot pilots don’t start jerking off their 50′ monstrosities when they’re stressed out?
2. Men think about sex on average 20 times a day – What if you forget to turn the interface off between your brain and status updates?
   1. Can you be sued for sexual harassment for thinking a status update about someone’s fine arse?
   2. Will the suit fail on the basis of their thought’s basically being libeling you in their next status update?
3. If you can directly communicate with people via induced telepathy, and you decide to leave it on to “enhance a love making experience” like they have in Demolition Man, what happens to the fantasy when you have the inevitable stray thought about needing to do the laundry?

So, as it turns out, psychic powers are not the realm of speculative fiction, or wild flights of fancy. They, like the sex life of a senior citizen, just require a little mechanical aid and imagination.

You might also like to read:

1. We are becoming Cyberpunk
2. Cyberpunk Pt17: Johnny Anachronistic
3. Cyberpunk Pt2: Of Cyborgs & Dirty Apes
4. Cyberpunk Pt4: Exosuits & combat mecha
5. More on currently available Cyberpunk

2 Comments »

1. 

   Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!! How could you ruin NGE for me like that? You cruel, cruel, heartless… Oh, wait, I’ve watched it about 20 times now… What was I saying again?

   I don’t even want to think about the possibility of “induced telepathy” during sex… What if you’re actually fantasising about someone else? Or about multiple someone elses? That may not be cool with your partner, and is probably more counter-intuitive than thinking about doing the dishes or whether or not you turned off the stove top after cooking dinner…

   That said, I would like to be able to send people emails without ever going near an actual computer…

   Comment by Arriahne — October 22, 2009 @ 2:46 pm

2. 

   You whine like Shinji…

   Comment by Egofreaky — October 23, 2009 @ 7:44 am

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