Who hasn’t read a science fiction story involving brain implants that allow the characters to control computer interfaces? The best known, I suspect, at least to me, is the Brain Ship series, where severely physically disabled people get the chance to have adventures through their interface with a starship. Now, current science has made strides toward this kind of ability for the disabled, with intercortical brain implants that allowed participants in the study to manipulate commercial tablets.
This is so cool. Not only for the thought, as I was commuting from work to home, that one day I could do this without having to touch the wheel. Or so many other things… But the excitement of the participants who were able to listen to music, shop, and text using the power of their minds alone. You don’t usually get the feeling of emotion in a study. It is supposed to be dry and factual. However, this one bleeds joy when you read the words of the people who were suddenly given a door to their tiny locked room. For them to be able to reach out and touch the world with their brains was something special.
Like!
I like it, too! However, I wonder if driving a car that way would actually work. Like a lot of other activities that are often repetitive, often our brains partially tune out when we are driving, and we (seemingly) get home on muscle memory — I don’t know if I could focus on the road long enough to do a very long trip just on brain power! Which could also be an issue for operating a starship….
Riggers unite!
Presumably, such an interface would allow the equivalent of “muscle memory” when full attention was not required,
Building an exit for Plato’s Cave… well, after a fashion.
At least going out there to investigate the shadows, and find out if there are walls reflecting them, or if it’s Dark Matter, or… what.