Mind control is becoming less a dream of comic books and more a fact of reality.
It starts with brain-to-text technology, a recent interest of Facebook Inc FB as revealed at its F8 conference. Regina Dugan, chief of the company unit researching the technology, said it would ultimately provide "the ability to text your friend without taking out your phone.”
But, in truth, it sets the pace for far more unreal activities.
“As you fast-forward, the real significance of that is the way we interact with machines is going to be transformed,” Gene Munster, managing partner and co-founder of Loup Ventures, told Benzinga. “No longer will you need your hands to work a touchscreen or a keyboard or your voice to control Alexa or Siri, but you’ll just simply use your thoughts to control these machines, and basically this wall that we have between humans and machines starts to blend together or the wall comes down.”
Munster predicted that the next year or two will bring EEG-based, brain-controlled interfaces (BCIs) in the gaming industry, so gamers can use their thoughts to fire a weapon or swing a bat, but that’s just the beginning. Eventually, those thoughts will control other command-driven machines.
The implications are extensive — for the human worker, for relevant industry players and for society at large.
Job Transformation
As time goes on and technology improves, typing or other brain-connected activities will take place as quickly as human thought, allowing the average worker to cut time on task completion and ultimately heighten efficiency. Input productivity will accelerate to four times its present rate, while overall productivity will likely increase 10 to 20 percent, Munster predicted.
However, this work pace will not actualize for some time. Munster said the next five to 10 years of advancements will negatively impact productivity as clumsy betas err and their texts require manual review and editing.
Industry Disruptions
Meanwhile, new BCI platforms would render obsolete some contemporary input forms, such as keyboards or touchscreens, and thereby displace companies now supplying the components. But the disturbance could be more significant.
“I think what’s going to happen that’s a bigger concern and what should be on the long-term roadmaps of companies is that their products, which are typically apps, need to be compatible with these BCI interfaces, because as soon as this catches on, this is going to be mandatory,” Munster said.
Not only will certain businesses be shaken, but professions most valued in the present technology space will likely be supplanted by an emerging expert.
“If you look at who has been driving technology over the last 50 years, in the ‘70s and ‘80s, it was coders, and then in the Internet and mobile world, it was mobile site developers or app developers,” Munster said. “In the next 50 years, it will be neurologists.”
Social Disturbance
With invasive implants already assisting people with communication disabilities, Munster said the tech world is moving toward noninvasive prosthetics, like headbands, capable of picking up P300 brain waves. However, the longer-term solution, a century down the road, is likely an implant — a method with vast economic implications.
The high cost of implants and related medical procedures could put the technology out of reach for consumers in lower income brackets, putting those able to afford it at an advantage. Ultimately, the tool’s inaccessibility could widen economic disparities, positioning those who begin life wealthy to remain so through competitive edges in school and the workplace.
Munster suggested that, if implants become the way, access to the technology will likely become, for equality purposes, a state-provided human right. However, he noted that the noninvasive pieces could eventually work well enough to render implants unnecessary and allow for equal accessibility and economic advancement.
New Limits
The reality of brain-to-text and brain-to-computer implants would ultimately make possible other futuristic technologies, particularly in the realm of virtual reality.
“Eventually when you go to an implant, you don’t even put a headset on, you can tap into certain senses in your brain where you can experience things,” Munster said. “Essentially, you can hardwire these experiences into your brain, and it won’t just be visual, it will be everything from touch to smell to what you hear and what you see. In other words, you can truly be teleported to a different experience.”
Noninvasive headsets already allow 360-degree visuals with audio, but Munster foresees enhancements both in quality and experience.
“You don’t feel the sensation, if you’re skydiving, of the pressure of the air against you or heat if next to a fire or cold if you’re outside,” he said. “All those intangible parts of our experience beyond sight and sound can be replicated through an implant.”
The limits of those experiences — whether capable of mere travel simulation or induced feelings of empathy and forgiveness — are yet to be seen. But, once more, their effects will be world-shaking.
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© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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