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Thought Transfer from Person to Person onerous—we just need it to be faster and more In 2009, researchers at the University of Southampton, accurate. Think of voice recognition systems and England, successfully demonstrated communication andwriting recognition systems at their inception: from person to person via thought alone. Here's how it hey showed lots of promise, and now they are here with worked. The first person had EEG electrodes attached very good recognition rates."” to the scalp. The brain activity was picked up and amplified using an EEG amplifier, and was then senton Network-Enabled Telepathy the Internet through a PC. The first person transmitted What we are seeing at the present time is the a series of binary digits, imagining moving the left arm | emergence of what might one day be a completely new for "zero" and the right arm for “one”. orm of communication. In the 10 years since work firs The second person was also connected to an EEG began on the development of brain—computer interface amplifier; that person's PC picked up the stream of echnology, researchers have created systems that can binary digits off the Internet, then flashed an LED lamp — manipulate objects on a computer screen, systems tha at two frequencies: one frequency for can control artificial limbs and others "zero" and another frequency for "one". hat can convert intended speech or The second person simply watched the hought into text. flashing lamp. . The former program manager a Throughout the entire experiment, Wolf predicts DARPA, Stuart Wolf, has predicted tha the recipient was unaware whether a that our thoughts one day we will communicate via wha one or a zero had been transmitted. . e calls "network-enabled telepathy", However, through that person's brain will transfer or instant thought transfer.*° Wol activity alone. the PC was able to across a network predicts that our thoughts wil transfer ecipher whether a zero or a one ha . . across a network directly into another been transmitted. directly Into person's brain, and that two-way, _hccording to pr Christopher James, another person's mind- omind ‘lb te cpa ic en working wi outhampton . communication will become a reality. University's Institute of Sound and brain, and that Kevin Warwick is the Professor of Vibration Research, BCI is now two-way Cybernetics at The University of b] Reading, England, and the world's leading expert in cybernetics. moving briskly forward and many labs around the world are mind-to-mind developing and using BCI as a 4 Warwick believes that some time communication device. telepathic this century we will develop mind- He explained: "We are by no communication to-mind telepathic ‘th ‘ t; i O ication. “At t means ‘there’ yet; many issues will become communication present our method of communication, speech, is very slow, serial and error prone. The potential to communicate by means of thought signals alone is a very cons to either case. exciting one. We will probably “People need to think outside have to learn how to communicate he box more, too, in terms of how BCI is used. In the _ well in this way, though; in particular, how to send ideas uture, | expect to see a certain amount o to one another. It is not clear if I think about an ice standardisation, and with the advent of smaller, cheaper cream, are my thoughts roughly the same as yours? We electrodes and smaller, longer-life power sources, BC will have to learn about each other's thoughts. Maybe it will be talked of the way cochlear implants are talked o will be easier than we think, maybe not. Certainly oday—no longer a ‘bionic’ thing of wonder but a_ speech is an old-fashioned, outdated means of system that is in routine use and making a difference | communication—it's on its way out!"” worldwide. In 2030, BCI users will not only include So, how would the development of mind-to-mind hose with severe clinical needs, but athletes and communication change society? I think Sir William F. performers could be using a different type of BCI to Barrett summed it up nicely in his 1918 book On the one their skills. The games market could be _ Threshold of the Unseen. revolutionised the way the Wii has revolutionised Sir William wrote about the social justice that he gaming today through the use of accelerometers. believed would inevitably follow if telepathy were to "| don't think it would be used to drive cars, but it may __ transpire: be popular to write long texts using a neural interface. We know it can be done, and the technology is not too remain: reliability [most BCI systems are still lab-based]; the debate of implanted versus scalp- attached electrodes still is unanswered—there are pros and a reality. Co ued on page 80 onerous—we just need it to be faster and more accurate. Think of voice recognition systems and handwriting recognition systems at their inception: they showed lots of promise, and now they are here with very good recognition rates."” Wolf predicts that our thoughts will transfer _ directly into another person's brain, and that two-way, mind-to-mind telepathic will become a reality. transpire: 38 * NEXUS across a network communication Continued on page 80 FEBRUARY - MARCH 2011 www.nexusmagazine.com