By way of introduction, I would love to remind us that the advancement of any technology is only mind-limited. As long as we can conceive it in the mind, the reality is certainly in view. After all, the amazing inventions we have in this era started as fragments of men's imagination.
Now, another possibility has arisen in the field of Communication Technology; and this is the technology of brain-to-brain human telepathy.
Brain telepathy, in a layman's language is the communication between persons without using or passing through any communication medium (communication without saying a word). That is, communicating directly from the brain (mouth = sidelined).
Before now, this ability was only seen as sci-fi, or mutant ability, as it was popularized and presented to us by X-men's professor Charles Xavier. Though his own telepathy was on the basis of genetic transmutation, neuroscientists are working to replicate the same result scientifically. You may ask if this is possible, but may I remind you this:
In this world, The word "impossible" does not exist.
History of the evolution of brain telepathy
This research has been age-long, but as the year passes, advances are being made. Back in the late 90s, a team of neuroscientists at Duke University started experimenting the electrical output of the brain. With the study of the individual neurons, they were able to discover the individual properties of each neuron (the test subjects included rats and monkeys).
With this discovery, they were able to connect a probe directly into the brain of the test subject. The work of the probe is to pick up signals from these neurons and relay it to a computer system. That was how the breakthrough started in this field.
In the year 2015, another team of researchers (led by Dr. Stocco Andrea) from the university of Washington made another breakthrough (the test subject was also monkey). It was an enhancement to the initial study. In this research, the need for body language was completely bypassed. Because the brain of the transmitting and receiving monkeys were implanted with "brainet" which does the actual telepathy. But the aim of this research is not just for animals but humans as well.
Human brain telepathy
Leveraging on the successes achieved with animal subjects, researchers have progressed to human test subjects. And I must say; complimentary feats are being achieved. The advancement in Electroencephalogram (EEG) cap has graced this feat.
The EEG cap can be worn by humans. This cap will track the activities of the brain in form of electrical impulses and transmits it wirelessly to the receiving human subject.
The only drawback here is that it won't be too fashionable walking about with an EEG cap. That is why scientists are searching out for better alternatives. And the way out is to have a BCI chip implanted directly into the brain. This is how tomorrow's communication will look like.
But I've been thinking; what will communication look like when this feat is fully achieved?
The three options available include:
- Full-duplex.
- Half-duplex.
- Simplex.
Also, would one implant be used to communicate with a particular person, or will the same implant be used to communicate with others?
Whatever happens, technology can only get better.
P.S: I hope hackers will not start hacking into people's brain using the chip implant?
Tech Rules!!
References for further reading: Ref1, Ref2, Ref3