Would you mind living in a world where telepathy is normal? That’s pretty much where we’re headed, according to one expert on the subject, after looking at the study methods and technology available for the human brain today. Indeed, Dr. Eric Leuthardt from the Washington University stated that a new breed of superhumans could exist fairly soon, with advanced mental capabilities that are currently just the stuff of science fiction. What’s even more surprising is that it could happen within just a few decades.
Dr. Leuthardt thinks that the technology of today will truly be able to advance to the point where mental telepathy will be a normal thing for a certain subset of humans. “A true fluid neural integration is going to happen,” he said. “It’s just a matter of when. If it’s 10 or 100 years in the grand scheme of things, it’s a material development in the course of human history.”
In other words, his view is that there will soon be a brain implant that will bestow mental telepathy “powers” on otherwise ordinary humans. In fact, the brain surgeon is so convinced that it will become commonplace that he thinks it will be just like getting a tattoo or a form of plastic surgery. He also wrote and published two novels on the subject, and even written a play that’s aimed at “preparing society for the changes ahead.” (Related: Facebook investing in neuroscience “telepathy” technology that can read minds, report your thoughts to the NSA.)
According to Dr. Leuthardt, with the rate that technology has advanced so far, there is a precedent that shows how right he is. In his own words, “it’s not inconceivable to think that in a 20-year time frame everything in a cell phone could be put into a grain of rice.” And that’s when the invention of brain implants will come in.
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“That could be put into your head in a minimally invasive way, and would be able to perform the computations necessary to be a really effective brain-computer interface,” Dr. Leuthardt said.
What’s interesting is that he is not alone in his belief that this type of technology will become available soon, and that it will be widespread, at that. There is another expert who believes that so-called neural chips will someday be as ubiquitous as smartphones are today.
Bryan Johnson, the founder of Kernel, a startup dedicated to developing brain microchips, has stated that the single greatest thing humanity can achieve is probably unlocking the full potential of the mind. And he thinks the solution for that will come along within the next few decades, with plenty of options that come along with it.
“I would expect in around 15-20 years we will have a sufficiently robust set of tools for the brain that we could pose any question we wanted,” Johnson said. “For example, could I have a perfect memory? Could I delete my memories? Could I increase my rate of learning, could I have brain to brain communication?”
The possibilities right now for such a technology are quite simply limitless, and it will be up to the scientists and researchers in charge of developing the future tools that will enable such technologies to exist to figure out what can and can’t be done. If they become successful, humans could be that much closer to understanding life in the universe as we all know it.
Read more about current scientific studies on the human brain at Brain.
Sources include:
DailyMail.co.uk
TechnologyReview
