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And who will then control our minds?

Francisco Miraval

According to an article posted at the BusinessWeek web site on July 30 of this year a company in California is developing a headset that will soon enable people to connect “mentally” with computers.

In other words, there will no need to use a keyboard or to move a mouse to enter data or to give instructions to the computer. Thanks to this new headset, you wear this helmet on your head and you just think what you want the computer to do, and the computer will do it.

The article says Emotiv, a company based in San Francisco, will begin selling the headset, called Epoc, in a few months, for $299.

According to Emotiv, the new device has 16 sensors that allow the headset to “detect” thoughts and to “translate” those thoughts into instructions for the computer, so you can play games or arrange pictures without moving your hands or saying a single word.

Another company, NeuroSky, is also developing a similar device. Both companies said the new device will be initially sold as “entertainment,” but they hope to eventually sell the headset as a component of a TV set or some medical equipment. The ultimate goal is to develop a device able to drive cars using only our minds.

Leaving aside the infinite possibilities this kind of devices open for science-fiction writers and readers –there are already several movies and books about this issue-, I would like to ask just two questions.

If the new device can read my mind and send information from my mind to the computer, could it be possible for the device to send information from the computer to my mind? In other words, who will be controlling whom?

Let’s assume for the moment the information only flows from my mind to the computer. Let’s also assume the device works as predicted and it can really read and translate my thought. Should I then limit my thoughts to only the thoughts I want the computer to know?

For example, what it could happen if I open an email message with my mind and suddenly and without warning a provocative picture I was not expecting is now in front of my eyes, creating an unavoidable and natural reaction in me?

Will the device, even against my own rational will, read my instincts and keep opening similar pages and pictures, just because that thought crossed my mind?

Let’s suppose I am “writing” a story with my mind and I discover the story lacks the quality I was hoping to achieve and, therefore, I want to delete it. Will the device “understand” I am talking to myself or will it delete the story?

I know enough about my own mind to know I have all kind of unwanted and unexpected thoughts, those thoughts being part of my thinking process. Will this device recognize the difference between thoughts, meta-thoughts, unwanted thoughts, and so on? Or are we being trained to think only those thoughts that conform themselves to the computer?

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