No, really:
Eventually, they’ll hook you directly to a computer and monitor your innermost thoughts as you trudge through the day’s work.
Hmmmm. . .
How can this be turned to a total immersion system? Can we directly implant images and experiences eventually. How immersive will a game become?
Games, schmames. For over a decade, the USAF has been working on stuff like this paired with virtual reality displays as a way of piloting unmanned vehicles.
Very old idea, possibly with better tech. Ironically, Atari themselves were the ones who tried to do this back in the early 80s with the (never-released) Mindlink system for the Atari 2600 (and by extension, the 7800 since it was 2600 compatible). The original idea was that you controlled the on-screen movements by thinking them. In practice, the controller really just reacted to minute muscle movements in the temples. It didn’t work very well unless the user was aware of how it really worked and was able to consciously manipulate those muscles. Even then it was flaky and usually gave the user headaches, which is why it was never released despite being shown at the '83 CeBIT show.
I have thoughts in my head throughout the day that I’d really rather not have researchers or even videogames know.
Imagine some of the other technologies that could use this. Cell phones that you don’t even have to pick up. You just think the person you want to call. maybe send a message picked from a list of choices. Then the other person answers the phone by thinking about it and listens to the message. It’s almost virtual telepathy. If the software were good enough to determine what words you wanted to speak and there was a way to directly put those words into the receivers head without them having to hear them physically, it would be actual telepathy. Bionic telepathy.
One day folks might look back on this first step with the same fond condencension with which we view the Model T or the biplane.
Unmanned vehicles schunmanned vehicles.
Can you say virtual sex? I thought you could… 