MSNBC had a fascinating article today on a form of synthetic telepathy being developed by the US Army, to be used for creating voice mail and email:
To those who might be nervous about thought-based communication turning into a sci-fi comedy of errors, D’Zmura says not to worry. Mind-message composition would take specific conscious thoughts and training to develop them. The device would also have a on/off switch.
“When I was a kid I occasionally said things that were inappropriate, and I learned not to do that,” said D’Zmura. “I think that people would learn to think in a way the computer couldn’t interpret. Or they can just switch it off.”
The notion of learning to hide your off-topic thoughts from such a device, and how that might be accomplished, is interesting.
Sweet! I tried writing by recording what I had to say rather than typing, thinking it would go faster for the original thought process/idea creation and I could just refine the idea when I have to type it. Well, I was so self-conscious about the things I was saying and how I sounded that it was a complete disaster. If I could do the same without having to hear myself, though, that could be terrific! …I wonder how it will deal with vocabulary.
Very interesting indeed. I spend a great deal of time daydreaming, intermixed with coherency and lunacy. Can’t imagine how one would learn to turn it “off.” Reminds me of a SF story I read a long time ago where the hero saves the day because he is the only one who can actually hear out loud what someone is saying.
This technology is a lot more developed than most people realize.
http://www.synthetictelepathy.com