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In the world of science fiction, it's quite common to see people interacting with computers in ways that are completely different from how we interact with them today, yet strangely seem perfectly natural. In 'Minority Report' Tom Cruise famously did some open-air multi-touching to cruise through digital files. Keeanu Reeves got some inter-cranial enhancements both in 'Johnny Mnemonic' and 'The Matrix', and in the popular manga and anime series 'Ghost in the Shell' (a major inspiration for 'The Matrix') characters have cybernetic brains that can wirelessly access all of the world's information. It's no surprise, then, that researchers and futurists are predicting that the typical user interfaces for computers that we're so familiar with are destined to go the way of the dial-up modem as we and the machines merge.
Academics in a recent report have predicted that by 2020 we'll be interacting with our machines in a very different way. Keyboards and monitors will be a thing of the past as machines learn to read our movements and wants, anticipating our needs without us having to explicitly ask for anything. It remains to be seen whether machines will be actually reading our thoughts by then, but given that we're already seeing some devices capable of being controlled by the mind, it's not entirely inconceivable.
This sounds like a potential boon; like having all of Wikipedia and IMDB and anything else you can think of wired directly into your brain at all times. But, some worry that these advances will result in negative consequences, a so-called "techno-dependency." Just like many feel that kids these days can't add 2+2 without using a calculator, they feel that kids in the future won't know Oliver Cromwell from Oliver Twist without some sort of online resource. It's only a matter of time, though, and while the Luddites may resist, you can be sure that we'll be first in line for our implants.
Actually, on second thought, maybe we'll wait for the 2.0 release.
From BBC News
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Comments
3
Subscribe to commentsNewErahasbegun!Apr 2nd 2008 5:20PM
intresting so the era of human beings is over and the transhuman era is now arriving. Human life is now obselte and pointless. Robots have inherited the earth and they shall be us!
ZipApr 2nd 2008 6:50PM
Even if a CPU wetwired inside your brain can read your thoughts, and act on them in your behalf - That is a dangerous idea. Imagine you are busy at work mentally rearranging a complex spreedsheet, when suddenly you have a pornographic thought. (We are HUMAN, after all.) Your brain scan falsely predicts you want to scan porn sites just as your boss starts to look over your shoulder at your plexiglass monitor. Hummm. BAD idea without safeguards.
NewErahasbegun!Apr 2nd 2008 7:33PM
but thats the thing we won't be human anymore we will be transhuman and we will be far superior to anything nature could make. We are aiming for 100% robotic bodies with no organic parts. That is why we want mind uploading to be rid of our organic shells.