# If we knew this or that what could we invent? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 22, 2018, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-we-knew-this-or-that-what-could-we-invent/818379 "2018-07-22T16:16:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![komolono](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/komolono/32/532_2.png) [@komolono](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/komolono)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2018, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-we-knew-this-or-that-what-could-we-invent/818379/81 "2018-08-14T17:38:56Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > you read somewhere? > Where did you read this? In a scientific journal? In a science fiction story? In an anonymous post on another message board? I see no reason to consider the notion unless I know the source because the notiion just doesn’t make sense to me. I sometimes think of more than one thing at a time, I sometimes think of colors, sounds, smells and tastes without sounding them out using descriptive terms. I think of happy and/or sad times without sounding out the words “happy” and/or “sad” in my head, or think of the ocean breezes in Depoe Bay without thinking the words “Depoe”, “Bay” or “breeze”. When you decide to go up a set of stairs do you actually think out the words “I am going to go up the stairs”? [https://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2004/mar/HQ\_04093\_subvocal\_speech.html](https://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2004/mar/HQ_04093_subvocal_speech.html) This is not where I read it, but maybe newatlas… ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2018, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-we-knew-this-or-that-what-could-we-invent/818379/82 "2018-08-14T18:11:21Z")
[QUOTE=komolono;21146335https://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2004/mar/HQ\_04093\_subvocal\_speech.html[/QUOTE] From that release: \*“What is analyzed is silent, or subauditory, speech, such as when a person silently reads or talks to himself,” said Chuck Jorgensen, a scientist whose team is developing silent, subvocal speech recognition at NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. “Biological signals arise when reading or speaking to oneself with or without actual lip or facial movement,” Jorgensen explained. “A person using the subvocal system thinks of phrases and talks to himself so quietly, it cannot be heard, but the tongue and vocal chords do receive speech signals from the brain,” Jorgensen said. \* This is explicitly not any kind of “mind reading” any more than reading lips or transcribing Morse code it. The subject in question has to form the vocal thoughts consciously even if they are not actually making sounds. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2018, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-we-knew-this-or-that-what-could-we-invent/818379/83 "2018-08-15T03:38:22Z")
Still useful though (e.g. talking to patients in a paralyzed state who cannot speak). But it’s from 2004…haven’t heard anything about it. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2018, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-we-knew-this-or-that-what-could-we-invent/818379/84 "2018-08-15T08:54:38Z")
I have sometimes speculated how the world would change if matter transfer was perfected to the point that things could be sent around the world in a similar way to telephone signals. There have to be limits though: A transmitter and a receiver have to be in place. (No transfers to other star systems.) The power required (and hence the cost) will be some multiple of the mass needing transfer. (Make it economic to send 100kg but not 500kg for domestic purposes). So - after breakfast on your South Pacific island - you go into a telephone box, press a button, and materialise at your place of work (or maybe in a unit down the street). ---
**Author:** ![ohiomstr2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/82dd89/32.png) [@ohiomstr2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ohiomstr2)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-we-knew-this-or-that-what-could-we-invent/818379/85 "2018-08-16T20:15:05Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > McLuhan was describing what he saw happening at the time; he was not making any predictions about the future or the Internet. > > Murray Leinster did a far better job of prediction in 1946 in his story “A Logic Named Joe.” > > That’s almost perfect. And so what? When the Internet finally arrived a half century later nobody went back to his prediction as a source. It emerged out of a thousand small advances and connections that came about for other reasons. Thank you! I have been trying to remember that story for ages! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-we-knew-this-or-that-what-could-we-invent/818379.md?page=4)