It's dystopian. It's also inspiring.
We’ve heard a lot of “duty-honor-country talk” this week. We’ve heard a lot about housewives and suburbs and how our “way of life” is on life support. |
I’m a wife in a house in the suburbs, and I’m not sure which way my life is going. Honor is literally my name. But I’m just glad this week is over and we can talk about some other things. |
Like mind-reading artificial intelligence. |
This weekend’s cover story is by one of my favorite science writers, Moises Velasquez-Manoff. He’s spent the past few months investigating the latest advances in what scientists call the brain-machine interface — how brains can talk to computers, and computers to brains. |
It’s dystopian, sure. “We already compulsively check Instagram and Facebook and email,” Moises writes. What will happen when we no longer have to poke at a phone with our big fat fingers and instead can just think our way online? Could Google harvest our daydreams and beam an inexplicable lust for Subway sandwiches into our subconscious? |
But it’s also inspiring. People whose spinal cords were severed could use versions of this technology to regain the use of their limbs. People who can’t speak after strokes could communicate far more easily. |
And Moises writes beautifully about the brain: It’s a “living, undulating organ that changes over time.” Trying to peer inside it can be like looking at a lake and seeing only the surface ripples of swimming fish. |
“Of the numerous proposed applications of brain-machine interfacing I came across,” Moises writes, he found one the most fun to extrapolate on. A neurosurgeon is studying whether it’s possible to, basically, zap part of the brain in patients with impulse control problems — people who overeat or, perhaps, suffer from addictions — to interrupt the compulsion. |
Moises imagines the possibilities: “What if every time your mind wandered off while writing an article, you could, with the aid of your concentration implant, prod it back to the task at hand?” |
An ad pops up, a worry, a news alert about Ivanka Trump’s speech but ZAP! Nothing can distract you. Sign me up. |
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Here’s what we’re focusing on today: |
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