Slashdot Mirror
How Cyborg Tech Could Link the Minds of the World
An anonymous reader writes "Science writer Michael Chorost has written a book that suggests that mankind may one day be able to link individual minds to share thoughts, feelings and perceptions by genetically modifying individuals brains and implanting computers based on neural networks in the body. Here he talks about the implications for human relationships, our sense of self and phenomenon like telempathy and dream brainstorming that this so-called World Wide Mind would make possible."
Great, now Facebook will be modifying my brain's privacy settings with little or no notice.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I had a thought, but I am not sure it is mine
I don't want to die, so box my brain and let me live on the net. I'll even let you use all the wonderful subconscious processing power that is usually dealing with my autonomous functions.
HEX
Horror & SciFi Erotic Nudes
we'll have an executive order giving the government the authority to wiretap your brain and read your thoughts at any time. Without needing a warrant. They'll say it's justified by the threat of terrorism, as usual.
the Borg
I read this book in high school - it was called "The Light of Other Days" back then.
Learn about Photography Basics.
What are the implications of this technology when applied to porn?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Soon we'll be having a real world Individual Eleven
You mean a scifi writer wrote a book about some scifi concepts? Amazing!
Mark Zuckeborg
Then I'll know when my ass is about to be run over by one of those damn bicycles they're letting run on the sidewalk now. Maybe the guy who runs me over will be able to feel my pain.
Sorry, I've been channeling Walter again (see JeffDunham.com or Youtube for Jeff Dunham and Walter)
Sounds like how a BrainPal from John Scalzi book Old Man's War universe as used by the Ghost Brigades.
"hey, that's not the same pony-tale you were just riding that flying lizard with, is it?!!!"
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
A huge number of science fiction and fantasy stories have explored this subject. It's not exactly a new idea.
If we discover enough information about brains work to hook into them at that level, we'll be able to build brains. Probably ones that clock a lot faster and definitely have more storage than biological ones.
Never mind Facebook, never mind warrantless wiretapping. The first and worst exploit will be SPAM.
This can already be done using low frequency radio and an appropriate interface.
http://deepthought.newsvine.com
We are the cyborgs. Prepare to be assimilated. Resistance is futile.
I am officially gone from
Obligatory PA ref -
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/12/12/
And I can't imagine why anyone would want this. Convergence is a terrifying concept, moreso than the general Christian idea of effectively being lobotomized once you reach heaven.
There is no -1 Disagree.
Plugging into some hive mind so I can share my thoughts with 7 billion fucking idiots? No thank you. I'll take the mortal route and hopefully check out with the average 75 years behind me. If I live to 100 I'm jumping off a bridge. Shit just roll me into the pool if I go limp. If I go demented then just tell me there's ice cream on the train tracks. Do whatever is needed to rid the world of my weakness.
Tiger Blooded Bi-Winning Machine
That's Ghost in the Shell. In the world of Ghost in the Shell, most people have a cybernetic implant in the back of the neck that allows them to communicate and browse the Internet.
Of course I fully expect Christians to lose their shit over this.
was pretend i was one of those deaf-mutes
C'mon, we've all seen the damage that it can do (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stream_of_Consciousness_%28The_Outer_Limits%29 ) - do we really want to rely on someone who can't use this to shut down the network before a botnet or virus attack kills us all?
..it's already there.
I'm doubtful any "world wide mind" will arise anytime soon, but we absolutely could begin experiment with parallelizing rats today, i.e. raise two rats with a high bandwidth link, after one rat learns the maze, the other knows it. And we'd eventually developed massively paralleled humans, literally Beowulf. ;)
The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. -- Bertrand Russell
we already are linked... it's called the five senses. you should try it sometime.
This episode of Outer Limits is all about something like the article.
I'll stay off of the "mind network" thank-you-very-much.
I've always wanted the ability to record my dreams. There is some pretty freaky stuff in there, but there's also some stuff I'd like to keep, and review. ;)
Perhaps.. some day..
On the same subject, at the speed this stuff happens in our little minds, we'd probably need some pretty fast storage devices, or a large array of them to keep up.
As for the sharing of thoughts, it would be nice, but no doubt we'd be bombarded with advertising right off the bat. Better be a good way to turn it off or keep things private.
So he read Old Man's War? Good for him.
SciFic Movie [1954] Forbidden Planet where the highly advanced species murderously seeks the final solution of extinction.
Unaccountable leaders are masters, and unrepresented people are slaves. How do US and EU fare?
You will be assimilated .
You will be assimilated...
Resistance is futile you will be assimilated
OMFG Hivemind!!
This breaks the spirit law... Imagine the noise you would get if every car crazy in the world were plugged directly into your mind in an arbitrarily controlled manner. LOL, you'd be hearing voices like crazy. I also think the genetic modification suggested breaks it as well. All this is quite ionic as the punishment for breach of the spirit law is...
The purpose of existence is to make money.
or the obligatory Star Trek Next Generation reference(s) - someone got a book out of this ?
When you have some tech that's even close to being able to do anything LIKE this, then call me. Until, stop speculating about the World Wide Mind. Please.
Just what I needed, more crazy voices in my head.
What do we expect? Now our bosses will be able to read our minds.
Asimov described something along these lines in his Foundation series - a world-organism called Gaia. Is this where this is heading towards? Asimov also included all the animals, plant-life and everything in his system though to make it stable ... ever wondered what your chair is thinking?
I had an insightful thought about this but shortly afterwards my brain was slashdotted.
IMHO, those who can resist will ultimately triumph.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
[wikipedia] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Reality_Dysfunction)
I'm pretty sure this guy read his book. Publication Date: 1996.
May? May, you say? I thought is was a given, the only question is "When?"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noosphere
For Teilhard, the noosphere emerges through and is constituted by the interaction of human minds. The noosphere has grown in step with the organization of the human mass in relation to itself as it populates the earth. As mankind organizes itself in more complex social networks, the higher the noosphere will grow in awareness. This concept is an extension of Teilhard's Law of Complexity/Consciousness, the law describing the nature of evolution in the universe. Teilhard argued the noosphere is growing towards an even greater integration and unification, culminating in the Omega Point, which he saw as the goal of history. The goal of history, then, is an apex of thought/consciousness.
What would happen if you made everyone feel as happy as the global average? What affect would that have on global policy and philanthropy if acting in the common good was in fact also acting selfishly?
So with the ability to directly convey hostility, anger, fear, and an overwhelming desire for upskirt shots, the concept of "thought crime" will become reality. "Mental assault" will be criminalized since your WOULD be able to cause distress in others with just a thought. People who were truly upset with a government would be easily detected and "dealt with".
Personally, I doubt that the tech would work as described. But if it did... consider what a surveillance-based government would do with it.
By amendment to the Constitution, any use of the aforesaid "telempathy" should be limited to online pornography.
Everybody gets what the majority deserves.
I bid 3 quatloos for your brain.
Fight Spammers!
I can't wait to have my brain hooked up to the hive-mind equivalent of 4chan... Why on earth would anyone think that this is a good idea?
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
A shame, you seemed an honest man
And all the fears you hold so dear
Will turn to whisper in your ear...
And you know what they say might hurt you
And you know that it means so much
But you don't even feel a thing...
Emotions! In your brain!
It sounds like the extroverts among us would have more fun with this than the introverted types, which includes me. The idea of constantly being hooked up to a hive-mind sounds exhausting. I suspect that if this concept ever becomes a reality and they wanted more nerds on board, then they'd have to include a switch so that individuals would have the choice to take themselves off-line every once in a while (or only join in when they felt like it).
When was the last time you watched that movie? The highly advanced species were victims of their own "Monsters from the Id." They created a machine that could literally make thoughts into reality, then they went to sleep and their dreams killed them all. They weren't murderously seeking anything. It's not so much a dystopian fable, as it is a direct copy of Shakespeare's "The Tempest."
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Time recently had a cover story on Kurzweil and his prediction of a singularity by 2045. The only problem for all these pipe dreamers is that nobody has a clue about how the brain works. The knowledge needed to interface directly with electronics in a meaningful way is not going to arrive anytime before the end of this century. Crude prosthetics for disabled people, yes, but nothing that would be of value to a normal person (enhanced memory, computation, seamless mind/machine interfacing) will be around in anyone's lifetime.
This is much like the hype in the lead up to completing the Human Genome Project. Grand predictions were made about what it would provide for us and then when it was done, everyone realized that it was a blueprint that nobody could understand in anything but the most rudimentary way.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
What does he know about plausibility when it comes to taping into the brain? Sure he has a cochlear implant but that is one of the easiest parts of the brain to understand. His claim is more or less, we put a man on the moon so I predict we are going to put a man on Pluto. To be honest, I would expect slashdot to weed these stories out.
The neural interface already exists, and we're all using it. Monitors, speakers and keyboards link everyone through what is probably the most efficient interface possible. At our keyboards and viewing our monitors, we all share consciousness.
Future improvements will allow us all to be present together in any chosen environment, as though we are actually there as in the Matrix. Shared environments produce shared experiences.
It is doubtful that we can communicate with others any more efficiently than we already do. The reason is that our minds are highly adapted to visual and verbal communication. Direct neural connections, although possible, are unlikely to result in greater efficiency than already exists.
Resistance is futile.
"We are the cyborgs"???????
"We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile."
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Please watch the movie Zardoz before pursuing this further.
Muhahahahahaahahahahaaa.
So this Michael Chorost guy saw one of the Ghost in the Shell movies and decided to elaborate on these very old ideas?
Yawn.
Now, in terms of thinking, this could allow other people to intentionally, uncontrollably interrupt my thoughts without first having direct physical access to me. I don't know about you guys, but I rely heavily on continuous thought, and can't do squat with discrete thought (think long-term focus vs. multitasking). Having an interface that can interrupt my thought process by another would be a bad thing. It might not be so bad if the wire could be pulled, but if the work being done needs information pulled from remote locations, it can be a very risky proposition.
Additionally, even now, people can operate with incorrect thoughts, but they are acquired through the normal inputs and outputs, and must pass through a reason filter in order to be integrated into the mind. The idea of there being a way to bypass that filter scares me to no end; imagine someone being able to plant a suggestion, telling you to do anything they want you to do. Maybe you'd still have the presence of mind to resist stuff you wouldn't normally do, but I've done enough technical work to know that not everybody has this presence of mind, especially when threats or enticements are used ("your computer is infected, download a security upgrade to fix," vs. "You have won $1,000,000, please provide your bank information to have it transferred to your account"). Believe me, it's not just the savvy that would want such an implant.
Next, action. Our minds determine what actions we will take, even if most of the steps are handled by nerve-based autonomous processes known as reflex (you don't have to consciously think about how to walk, you just walk). If I were to be rendered unconcious, so that an attacker could make use of my body, there's no telling how law would apply; I was unconscious at the time, I performed the action, but someone else is responsible. And that's not taking into account...
The health aspects of such a thing is probably the most frightening thing about having such a device in the mind. Every part of the human body has some basic activity that can be harmful if it stopped, even for a short time. A healthy nervous system allows the proper timing signals to be received by the involuntary muscles in the body including heart, lungs, and digestive tract. Without these, neither nutrients nor oxygen would make it to the cellular tissue, especially the muscles themselves. The body would break down, eventually dying as a result.
We do have diseases, but right now, they are limited to physical infections which are localized, and usually contained and expelled by a healthy immune system (autoimmune diseases notwithstanding). Having a direct access to the brain, however, opens up the risk for a much more dangerous form of infection; imagine some really antisocial people coming up with a virus program that can alter the signals going to the heart muscles, such as, say stopping the heart, or maybe increasing the rate to even more dangerous levels. Imagine something that can force the adrenal glands to keep producing. Or perhaps stop the pancreas, inducing a state of diabetes in anyone. Or perhaps disable dopamine production, leading to a number of frightening diseases.
The point is this, if you set your brain up to be affected by computers, then it'll be just as well-protected as any computer is against attack. And unlike a computer, this cannot easily be reformatted, nor can an alternative OS be installed... at least, not without you no longer being you.
The Penguin Producer
Meow, meow, meow, meow.
Imagine the mental equivalent of living in the same headspace as both Mother Teresa and Jack the Ripper -- AT THE SAME TIME!
But some of us are already there, without being plugged in.
I couldn't help but think of the Arthur C Clark novel when reading this. It's not the first time the concept of a collective mind has been explored, nor will it be the last. But comparing it to Childhood's End brings up other pertinent questions as well - what effects would a technology like this have on our evolution as a species? What effects might it have on us even within our lifespan? We simply cannot know. We're still completely clueless when it comes to the human brain and, as Animats and others have already pointed out, by the time we have the technology to implant chips in our brain that allow us to receive a stream of other's thoughts or emotions, filter that stream out at any time, detect when emotions we're feeling are not our own and identify whose they are, we'll have done plenty of other things with the technology first.
/. crowd overwhelming focuses on the potential dangers and downfalls of such technology. Then again, when has anyone on /. ever argued for anything that would make them be (gasp) social?
Furthermore, it seems the general reaction from the
BLACK KNIGHT SECURITY SYSTEMS
We'll bite your legs off
Yes, their murderous "Monsters from the Id." provided extinction as a final solution for all their greatness was humanly flawed. Let's not make this a tempest in a teapot.... Like good archeologist/anthropologist we both see the same results, but not the same fictitious path.
Unaccountable leaders are masters, and unrepresented people are slaves. How do US and EU fare?
I had a thought, but I am not sure it is mine
Loss of self is exactly the problem. Most people probably won't believe me when I say this, but I am a telepath - a reader, not a sender. I read other people's thoughts, usually without meaning to do so. Unlike in the movies, those thoughts don't "sound" any different in my head than my own thoughts. Sometimes they "feel" different, sometimes not. But unless a thought is something completely out of normal range for me ("I'm going to be late picking up the kids," etc.), I often don't have positive confirmation that it is someone else's thought until they verbalize it or act it out.
While the idea of being a telepath may sound cool - and to be honest it has at times in my life proven quite a useful talent - in practice it's also a little disturbing. I'm never really sure if my thoughts are my own, or someone else's leaking into my brain. And even when I am sure they are someone else's, sometimes it's crap you don't really want to hear. Like trying to listen to your own music in your car, but hearing someone else's music in the car next to you.
I have coping mechanisms, though. I can't hear everyone's thoughts, automatically. It's like I have to share "resonance" with someone for me to pick it up, be on frequency, etc. If I'm around someone a lot, I tend to tune in to them. With strangers, it's hit or miss. But the more people I'm around in close proximity, the greater the chances of coincidentally being in tune with someone. Big crowds like in busy malls or airports give me bad headaches (imagine listening to 15-20 radios, at low volume, but all tuned to different stations). So, to avoid the noise, I avoid crowds as much as possible.
To me, the thought of being permanently plugged into a World Wide Mind is comparable to living my entire life in a crowded airport. The idea makes me nauseous. Hearing the crap inside people's heads once in a while is inconvenient, but hearing it from everyone all the time? And where would my thoughts and emotions end, and others' begin?
Remember also, that very few people know I can hear thoughts (only my wife and a couple of very close friends). My wife is used to it, and we're very open and honest with each other, but it sometimes makes my friends a little uncomfortable knowing that I *could* be listening in. How about if you *knew* that *everyone* is listening in? Would you still think the same thoughts, or would you filter your own thoughts the way (some) people self-censor what they post on their Facebook page. And if you would filter your thoughts, would the hypothetical World Wide Mind be expanding our horizons - or limiting them?
You avoid the (mindless) crowds, and yet you frequent /. ?
Wow, but that's a lot of buzzword bullshit!
I really have to get in on this futurist book scam.
On the internet, no one can hear you derp.
What, no Cyberiad reference? Maybe it's folded into a reply or under my threshold...
No.. seriously... :P
....my 3am Taco craving? Or the number of amusing insecurities that I harbour?
Seriously, my idle thoughts are like a 16 year old girl's Twitter.
The Internet already allows us to share thoughts, feelings and perceptions with the rest of humanity in realtime.
I see very little benefit for moving the interface that we use to achieve this from our personal computers into our brain.
It'd be bad enough if some ass monkey hacked into my home servers and stole my personal data, but I really don't need someone hacking my brain and publishing what I really think about my boss.
religion, re-invented
"God is the sum of all our minds."
Then we'll get lizard-like skin from which we feed from the stars, then we get shiny eyes, lose the mouth and call ourselves the Protoss... with our mighty world wide mind known as the Khala.
That was chopped liver?
Forever Peace, by Joe Haldeman, 1998, featured cyborgtech group think,
a lot longer ago.
It also advanced the sawtooth theory of evolution,
before they thought the HSC would end the universe.
Move along, nothing to see here...
Capatia; "Oldest"
What next? We form the Khala?
I surf the web behind a badass firewall with a browser in a VM. Why the fuck would I want to connect my brain to my neighbors'?
Beowulf cluster of human brains.
If enithin kan gow rong it whil. (Murfey)
What an absolutely original idea. I mean.. no one has EVER been talking about this since the 1950s. In fact, I havent read a 10000 articles on the topic. It hasnt been central to ANY sci fi I have ever read.
Hi, I'm the author of WORLD WIDE MIND and I thought I'd offer a few responses to the discussion.
As a number of commenters here have pointed out, the idea of a collective consciousness is not new. Teilhard de Chardin wrote about it in "Phenomenon of Man" (1955), and Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote about it even earlier, in 1851 (inspired by the telegraph.) I discuss both Hawthorne's and de Chardin's ideas in the book.
My contribution to the discussion of collective consciousnesses is to show *how* minds could be linked together, drawing on recent developments in neuroscience and neurotechnology. For example, I discuss pathbreaking new techniques such as genetically altering neurons so that they respond to light. The book delves into molecular biology and genetic engineering in detail.
That said, I don’t predict that such technologies will actually come to fruition. I discuss my own experience with cochlear implants – I am profoundly deaf – to underscore the fact that neural technologies are extremely hard to develop and are tightly regulated.
My point is simply that it is now *possible* to talk about brain-to-brain communication in concrete terms. This is very new; the key technologies I write about didn’t exist when I began planning the book in 2006. They open up profound questions about cognition, perception, communication, and empathy, and I explore them at length.
To clear up one misperception: the new kinds of communication I try to imagine are sensory and emotional, rather than verbal.
Quite a few comments depicted scare scenarios of “mind control” and dehumanization. In the book I explain why I think such outcomes are unlikely. Broadly speaking, while every new communications technology is greeted with fear and distrust, in the long run it opens up entirely new forms of human interaction. Ultimately, new communications technologies almost always enhance freedom and individuality rather than diminish it.
Best regards,
Michael Chorost
(http://www.michaelchorost.com, @MikeChorost)
There was a EP of SG1 with some called the link that was like this.
http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/Revisions
and there was a The Outer Limits EP with some that was like the SG1 link.called
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stream_of_Consciousness_(The_Outer_Limits)
Don't we already have a wonderfully diverse way of interfacing with each others brains?
and thanks to how wonderfully and unique each brain is, its impossible to get significantly more direct access to it..
For example. when i think "flower" i'm thinking something compleatly different in every concieveable way than whne you think flower. different groups of neurons are firing compaired to you.. the very way i think about "flower" is compleatly unique to myself. the best they could do is interface with the input routs your ears / eyes use to transmit information into your brain, so they could plant a chip, sync it up to your auditory system, and then when they triggered it you would hear a noise as if you were wearing earphones.
this may however allow for intergration into computer systems, so instead of looking at a monitor you could enter a dream state where images would be directly fed to your visual & auditory cortex. this is less about communicating with other minds and more about "entering the matrix". pretty cool none the less.
All our thoughts are already in what some people calls the "superconscious" or what Jung called "collective unconscious".
Weekend self-improvement courses such as The Silva Method teaches techniques to access what they call "universal consciousness" and get information about anybody, anywhere if it is for their benefit.
If your not trolling then is a pretty cool talent to have.
There are self-improvement courses such as The Silva Method where you might learn techniques and ways to "control" this talent.
They teach some advanced courses for remote viewing and that kind of psychic stuff, no telepathy afaik but all their techniques are based on similar principles that you can derive and figure out one for your talent.
Mandatory question: Does it run Linux?
It feels like he is scooping my project:
http://hplusmagazine.com/2011/02/23/beyond-the-borg/
http://engineuring.wordpress.com/2011/02/23/collective-consciousness-implications-for-immortality-and-spiritual-freedom/
sad :(
They should watch GITS to know this is a very.. Verrrrryyyyyyy bad idea.
No more computer hacking, more like Brain hacking...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_(Foundation_universe)#Galaxia
However Gaia extends the concept to the whole planet, linking in the collective consciousness also inanimate matter. Due to it's size, Gaia has no written records and memories of individuals are stored forever in the global consciousness. Gaia is created to be the precursor of Galaxia, which will include also stars, unhabitated planets and any galactic object, enhancing the mentalic effects that are usually limited by speed of light.
There's an easy million for you to make, and world-reknown. If your ability is real please demonstrate it. I for one would be amazed and excited. JREF million dollar challenge
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
We better have malware protection before anyone tries it.
And hope no-one has a stroke while connected.
Stone the crows at home.
Read Pat Cadigan's 1991 cyberpunk classic Synners if you didn't get that.
I have a friend like you.
/This post is a tropical blended mix of satire/sarcasm/and truth.
//Enjoy your empanadas and tip your waitress.
///Why do we use torture to get truth when we have PET and fMRI scanners?
Me and the rest of his buddies decided to learn Russian with an accent. Haven't had any issues for a long time. My troll.
Do you read dreams. Strangely enough when you dream very little changes in the mind. You are still *thinking* even though your asleep (usually at a faster rate 6-8x faster than normal). Your entire mind is at work. It only rests at certain cycles at sleep and even then it's hard at work most likely saving memory chemically, tying it together with neural connections (or neuron to neuron connections), etc...
What about emotions or feelings. Does that transfer. They're triggered in the same and usual manner. Is it worse during a storm? Have you ever thought, maybe you should: make some scientific tests to (double blind) test the ability, query a psychology department--I'm very serious about this option (it offers tests and if inconclusive it offers advice if not solutions--believe it or not using fMRI or PET scans they would find out A HUGE amount if you had even a minor event), if you have it-why are you so scared of seeing it through to a conclusion. Make sure they know everything that you may've EVER experienced (talking, visions, auditory, feelings, etc...).
Also, go into this WITH an open mind, as it may be possible you have a mental illness; like a second personality. In effect it would circumvent you from knowing any information straight off the bat, but then sending it to you in two ways. First, it would send you information out of the blue, unexpectedly as it is not sent in the typical fashion. Second, then it would give you the full information which we all get. If this type of situation occurred it might seem like prescience abilities, but it is merely a perception based delusion caused by the pseudo-personality monkeying with your input from the world. Keep your mind open. Let go of the notion that you can read minds. Balance yourself and be extremely critical, especially with a doctor (or doctors). You can even try a second opinion (unless you get James Randi, I wouldn't bother if he takes you up as he'll have the best there).
You sound like a "nice story bro" troll. But, hey, if you got the goods, there are people that will help you. Talk to James Randi, he'll want to disprove you, but if you find anything it'll mean something (plus you get one million dollars; another reason why none of us believe this crap--no-one is willing to get tested , EVEN though they'd be rich instantly...). fMRI and PET are the way to go. BTW, those machines are good enough with a trained technician to give a yea or nay if your lying or being truthful. That part I'm most defiantly making up.
So are you going to hide what could possibly be one of the biggest breakthroughs evolutionary wise, if not just for the medical and physics data that would be provided for the world to use. Make sure you approach a public figure like Randi, and get more people to follow your events. Otherwise, you'll end up a section 8 in some basement complex in Nevada.
BTW, if your not willing to test it, fervently (as I doubt you would want to stop it if a psychologist just told you it's in your head; or just outright called you insane), I really would wager that you're full of crap. Plus if it is true and they can track the genetic marker responsible we might be able to use it one day. But, if that gene is recessive it;'s more than likely it'll show up in your family for a few generations and go *poof*. (Nobody has the gene anymore as it was replaced by a dominant one.)
I'm giving you the benefit of *feeding a troll*(or doubt). Enjoy your lulz.
Something witty goes here.
The US Government will require everyone to be "Hooked up" as part of a medical plan and then they'll require that the president have access to a button to "shut down the 'net" for the safety of all and to prevent terrorist activities...
"Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet." General James Mattis
Yes, their murderous "Monsters from the Id." provided extinction as a final solution for all their greatness was humanly flawed. Let's not make this a tempest in a teapot.... Like good archeologist/anthropologist we both see the same results, but not the same fictitious path.
I see what you did there.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Most people probably won't believe me when I say this, but I am a telepath
Most people here would believe you if you had any evidence whatsoever other than a few anecdotes.
Also, shouldn't you be helping out psychologists/neurosurgeons in explaining how the brain works rather than moaning about how annoying it is to you?
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
We are the borg. Resistence is futile!
Ever since I first saw Borg depicted in star trek, I've dreamed of some kind of mind-to-mind interaction being possible. Contrary to what many people fear, there is no need to be permanently jacked into such a system, although, like facebook, you might find yourself compelled to use it ceaselesly regardless of actual benefits - because we are social creatures of habit. Still, the ABILITY to commune mind-to-mind in no way prescribes the NECESSITY to be plugged in and enslaved. Advantages are countless - although I personally feel like communication with any degree of fidelity would have to be restricted to symbols - language, math, diagrams, what have you. More subjective things like complex combinations of feelings or stream of mental impressions are likely to have a unique code to represent them in every brain. For codes that we share, like math, natural language, etc., it would be great to be able to communicate these faster and more conveniently than we do today. For verbal communication, people being in different locations can't be on the phone all the time. Instant messaging is great but not for people who don't like typing or with imperfect vision. I can't wait to welcome our new robot overlords who are me!
You will be Assimilated.
This is not a political statement. This is not legal advice. It's a frick'n Slasdot post. However: I'm Running For
Reminds me of the Bible verse "My name is Legion: for we are many."- The Gospel of Luke, Luke 8:30
I can get a whole computer chip to be a computer, almost....the size of a small capsule...so what if we used that tech that takes the power generated by our bodies to power this pc....and then let it have wifi/4g integrated, and let it be the same as an iphone...so you can dial out...to another such iphone chip installed inside someone's cranium or base of head....then we would all appear tobe telepathic, but really not, cuz the machine is doing the talking....the only thing yet to be invented is the thought to keyboard, ooops, no, that one is done also, you need a special helmet, but it works...so i guess we are almost there then.....cant wait to be able to call the president directly....!
You may have schizophrenia, and you definitely have a bad case of confirmation bias, but you're not a telepath.
Your account describes that you occasionally know what someone is thinking before they verbalize it, more often with people you know well than with strangers, and more often when there are a lot of people around than with just a few. The first part of that is called "knowing someone" and the second is just statistics. Your dislike of crowds is simply a dislike of crowds.
I'm as much a telepath as you are, to the extent that you described, which is to say not at all. The experiences you are describing are commonplace.
About ten years ago, my lover and best friend died. For months afterward, I could "hear" her in my head with perfect clarity, adding her own remarks and observations to whatever I was doing or thinking about. I did not conclude that I was in communion with her ghost; I just knew her well enough that I knew what she would have said.
If fate makes you a motorcycle, you become a motorcycle.
You may have schizophrenia, and you definitely have a bad case of confirmation bias, but you're not a telepath.
Says who? I'm a skeptic, and I don't "believe" in telepathy, but I do know that we do NOT know enough about how the brain works to definitively say one way or the other that this guy is not telepathic. People like you who make grand, sweeping, dismissive statements ("oh you're just imagining it all") for any condition out of the norm are standing in the way of progress, not helping.
From "The last question"
Man considered with himself, for in a way, Man, mentally, was one. He consisted of a trillion, trillion, trillion ageless bodies, each in its place, each resting quiet and incorruptible, each cared for by perfect automatons, equally incorruptible, while the minds of all the bodies freely melted one into the other, indistinguishable.
...welcome our Rat Overlords
Says who?
Me, obviously. I'm the one who wrote it, so it represents my own analysis. I don't preface every statement I make with "In my opinion," because that should be apparent. Whose else would it be?
I do know that we do NOT know enough about how the brain works to definitively say one way or the other that this guy is not telepathic.
We've much to learn about how the brain works, but we already know a great deal about how it does NOT work.
People like you who make grand, sweeping, dismissive statements ("oh you're just imagining it all") for any condition out of the norm are standing in the way of progress, not helping.
Right, because anything that can't be definitively disproved is valid and mustn't be dismissed?
I disagree, and will as a matter of policy continue to dismiss extraordinary claims for which there is no compelling evidence, until such time as compelling evidence is presented. People like you, who lend credence to any notion that can't be disproved are the ones who stand in the way of progress.
You're free to interpret reality in whatever manner you choose, of course; I will do the same.
If fate makes you a motorcycle, you become a motorcycle.
I guess the author has been watching "Ghost In The Shell - Standalone Complex" on Saturday nights on Adult Swim...
"Ones and zeros were everywhere. I even think I saw a two!" - Bender
Mind connection potentials have been part of ancient hindu and chinese civilizations for thousands of years... you dont need genetic modification or neural implants..practicing yoga consistently and diligently can help your mind reach that level.
We all know about "telepresence" where a remote robot arm or eyes start to feel like your own after long time use. This has been carried further by a prosthestics researcher with two good arms and connects 3rd to his torso for development. He said after some time it feels almost as real as his flesh arms.
I think could get used to more limbs or eyes or looking those those of another person.