Founder and CEO of Facebook wants brain-to-brain thoughts directly transmitted
In a recent Q and A conference with Facebook users, CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed his vision of the future – one in which people will be able to think something and instantly, directly, have the thought sent to another user of the same platform. The transmission of thoughts through telepathic communication would be achievable over regular Internet satellites like the ones we have today, but problems still have to be resolved before such futuristic and controversial technology can be marketed.
Don’t hold your breath for the release of telepathic internet communications, though
Fear not, folks. Such technology, which is sure to baffle a number of people, cause scary privacy concerns to users (imagine having your thoughts hacked into), and make luddites’ heads explode worldwide, is years and years away for a number of reasons. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Tinder, and almost any other imaginable form of non-telepathic social networking available today will have to sate your appetite for social media for a while.
So, what’s preventing telepathic communication from being viable today?
Foremost, we would require a device that would somehow plug in to a person’s brain and be able to both send and receive electrical signals. Basically, neurons communicate using neurotransmitters, which are a form of chemical signal. Whenever neurons receive these chemical signals, they give off little jolts of electric energy. Believe it or not, millions and millions of these neurotransmitters are needed for even our more basic actions, which results in millions and millions of bursts of electricity being sent and received by neurons. Capturing these electric bursts is currently impossible, since we simply don’t have the hardware to do it. Then there’s the question of how to plug in to someone’s brain; do you use a brain implant? Is surgery needed? Well, there’s a few devices being worked on today that would make that unnecessary.
What kind of mind-reading gear is being developed as we speak?
Currently, researchers are working on telepathic communication using the revolutionary principle of TMS, short for Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. By generating a magnetic field over a person’s brain, neural pathways within can be activated, allowing users from India to “beam” thoughts to others in France in a recent test. However, the system is very rudimentary, and only really let the users send simple words like “hola” and “ciao” to those on the receiving end. The U.S. Army is also developing a sort of telepathic helmet that could synopsize and simplify the necessary electrical impulses, for more efficient transmission. But telepathic communication technology is years away, thankfully, to those of us who feel like online social media has already sort of gotten out of hand.
