Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Brain Wave


At the heart of much speculative fiction (and fiction in general) is a question. What if? On Tuesdays I like to throw one out there and see what you make of it. Do with it as you please. If a for-instance is not specified, feel free to interpret that instance as you wish. And if you find this becomes a novel-length answer, all I ask is a thank you in the acknowledgements.

"Some day we'll all be able to beam information directly into our brains."

I don't know what conversation prompted the student to say this, as all I heard was this statement, but now he had me hooked. I've seen such ideas in science fiction before, but it requires hardware to be installed into a person's brain. I mentioned this, but the boy didn't see that. He thought that such a thing could work kind of like Google Glass.

Still, I don't think our brains would just absorb information in the way he said.

What if we could beam information directly into our brains? How would that sort of thing work?

8 comments:

  1. I wonder how that would change the education system. There would be no need to spend years in school before heading out into the world if information could just be beamed there. Everything we need to know could be implanted when we're young...

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  2. Ohhh this would be scary when one thinks how people's minds could be manipulated. We might be informed about a certain history but history could be altered and then we learn it the way it is not meant to be. We may lose our ability to think for ourselves and form our own opinions. Scary thing actually

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  3. I'd sure like some knowledge beamed into my head - like the ability to speak other languages fluently, or an understanding of higher mathematics. Those would be my first two choices. But would there be any dangers associated with the procedure? Would someone need special training or could anyone use the device?

    Interesting question.

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  4. That could be interesting to get like a fine tuning when someone is losing their memory, to get information beamed back about events, people in their lives, etc. I personally would like it if it could beam my shopping list into my brain :)

    betty

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  5. Well you and I would be out of a job Liz!

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  6. It would be great for certain things, especially while on vacation: maps, attraction open hours/days, restaurant reviews. I spend so much time reviewing notes and making itineraries. But otherwise it could get scary.

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I appreciate your comments.

I respond to comments* via email, unless your profile email is not enabled. Then, I'll reply in the comment thread. Eventually. Probably.

*Exception: I do not respond to "what if?" comments, but I do read them all. Those questions are open to your interpretation, and I don't wish to limit your imagination by what I thought the question was supposed to be.