You are now in a brave new tomorrow where all manner of unbelievable possibilities exist, things often dreamed of but never thought possible such as mind control. Mind control, along with mind reading, exists in the world today. At least to a certain degree… The concepts of a brain-computer interface, a brain-brain interface, and brain scanners have actually existed for several years. I’m no scientist, so everything following this sentence will have very little to do with immediate reality. If hard science is what you came for, check out the links at the end of the article. I’m here to talk about somewhat silly, somewhat awesome superpowers we might have someday if science would hurry the frack up.
I swear I’m not a Cylon
Thermostat Man
At the rate “smart” technology is moving, it will only be a few years before I’ll be typing this message on my smart keyboard while sitting in my smart chair inside of my smart house[1] controlled by my smart thermostat[2]. Once scientists have perfect implantable brain-computer interfaces, there’s no reason why we wouldn’t be able to “jack in”[3] to our home network and control all the smart technology in our homes with thoughts alone. I’m going to go ahead and predict that every dad in the country will soon gain Jedi-like force of will in order to keep the temperature level agreeable.
I sense a very minute disturbance in the temperature…
Cyborg Man
Think of every handicapped person you’ve ever met. Now imagine them as Iron Man and you will catch a glimpse of what life could be like for the handicapped of the future[4]. What does this mean for society? Well for starters, we could get rid of handicapped spaces and ramps. That alone saves the rest of society precious seconds of walking every day[5]. But for realsies, technology allowing a handicapped person to control computers and electronics by thought would bring a level of independence and hope to a segment of the population that was eternally down on their luck previously.
Ocean Man
What about ocean exploration? 95% of the ocean is currently unexplored. There are a myriad of reasons why we haven’t explored more, but a huge reason is just how huge the ocean is. Now imagine that anyone can strap on a VR headset and pilot around a SPWC (submersible personal water craft – patent pending). All it would take is for someone to create an app that gives you points for poking around in uncharted waters and I have no doubt that a large portion of the ocean could be mapped in no time[6].
Vacation Man?
Taking a vacation halfway around the world is slightly out of budget for most people. Even if you do have the cash, who has the time to sit in a pressurized cabin for a day? With the combination of VR, brain-computer implants, and mobile robots, you could easily visit another country without ever leaving home[7]. Log in to a diving bot at the great barrier reef, sync up with a drone in the Amazon, then jump to a satellite camera in lower orbit all before dinner time. Honestly at the point, why even bother with reality anymore?
Who needs procreation….
To All The Haters
I will grant that the concept of implanted brain to machine interfaces holds some serious potential to screw the whole world over and cause a variety of doomsday situations. Instead of fully exploring each possibility and ruining both of our days with depressing ideas, here’s a brief list of some things that could, in theory, come about.
- Hackers shutting people down remotely
- Loss of any private thoughts
- The advent of “Wall-E humanity”
- The advent of “The Matrix”
However, here’s the thing about innovation, it’s inevitable. Advances will be made by someone eventually so instead of focusing on the negatives and becoming a naysayer[8], we should push forward and strive for the positives. Do we ignore the negatives? Absolutely not! Instead, we should prepare for them. Those of you that would say an innovation shouldn’t exist because of some negative aspect that may occur should instead focus on what we can do to circumvent that negative when the innovation does exist.
Finally, you might ask, how realistic is any of this? Heck if I know, go out and ask a scientist. If you don’t know one, check out some of the articles below and decide for yourself just how far off Thermostat Man is from existence[9].
[1] Yeah Nerdlithic was about that Dcom life
[2] Too bad they never found a use for my smart ass
[3] Pervert….
[4] We mean the robotic armor suit, not so much the genius billionaire playboy philanthropist
[5] Add that up over a year and it’s still not that much time
[6] Jimmy has invited you to play Pacific Rush!
[7] Or bed for that matter
[8] Horse people…
[9] Yes I read all of those. No I’m not the world’s biggest nerd.
Nerdlithic 