I was talking with my mom about my ‘obsession’ with the Internet and my love of the mental community here. One thing led to another and she joked that I should just get the neural plug in and be done with it.
Along those lines we began to wonder how such things would work. If it was like an IM “Ignore”-ing someone ‘online’ could be a pretty powerful thing. “I have wiped any idea of you from my mind.”
What wonderful “away” messages you could leave! “I’m out of my mind at the moment, but if you would leave a quick note I’ll think about you when I return”
“Thinking of someone else, do you feel dirty?”
Cyber sex would combine with psychic orgasms. Fun stuff in the world of thought.
Recently, doctors wired a camera to the optic nerves of a blind girl and gave her a bit of sight. (some of the details of this are fascinating; I can post more if folks like) So, we are today capable of creating a direct interface into the human brain.
Also with today’s technology, doctors are able to hook into nerves to trigger a prothesis to move when the patient thinks about it. So, today we are capable of creating a direct interface out of the human brain.
Granted, both of these technologies are in their infancies, but it just isn’t that far out when we can create a more general bi-directional interface to the brain and hook it into the worlds knowledgebase, i.e. the internet.
I’m no expert, but I believe we’ll see that in my lifetime. When I’m a gazillionaire, this is one of the areas that I hope I can play in.
Yes, it will happen soon. Visual implants have been made to work (although I thought it was a couple of guys, and the wires went right to their brains), and another lab has been picking up images directly from (cat/rat?) brains.
In maybe 10 or 15 years we’ll most likely be able to get rid of keyboards and monitors entirely.
Just don’t come here while you’re driving! Cell phones are bad enough!