Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Cybernetic Telepathy?
A friend pointed me to this little news story:
Surfing the Web With Nothing But Brainwaves.
Okay, now I'm as much a technophile as your next geek. And I was thrilled when I read about games that were controllable with nothing but your brain. But this is both exciting and, frankly, frightening. Anyone remember Pat Cadigan's book "Synners?" In it someone develops the first computer virus that infects humans plugged into the 'Net with their brain implants. Talk about network security concerns! Can I get my brain a spam filter?
But even sticking close to the here and now (well, the here and possibly not-too-distant future): The article mentions "Network-Enabled Telepathy". And using that for conference calls! Do you really want to expose yourself to the knowledge of how much your co-workers REALLY think about sex?
I shudder.
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 4:43 AM (Permalink)
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Now this is interesting.
From the title of this blog entry I was assuming that you were talking about a game.
So while opening the article I thought: "Well, cybernetic telepathy, cool idea. People fortunately can't read each others minds, but robots could (via USB, WLAN or whatever) and especially game A.I.s could. So someone indeed could write a game where you have a device that let's you look inside the A.I.s 'mind' by showing the state of the FSM, translated into natural language. This way you could wait for the guard to look into the other direction or fall asleep to let you slip through the gate. Or something like that."
But then you were talking about something quite different :-).
From the title of this blog entry I was assuming that you were talking about a game.
So while opening the article I thought: "Well, cybernetic telepathy, cool idea. People fortunately can't read each others minds, but robots could (via USB, WLAN or whatever) and especially game A.I.s could. So someone indeed could write a game where you have a device that let's you look inside the A.I.s 'mind' by showing the state of the FSM, translated into natural language. This way you could wait for the guard to look into the other direction or fall asleep to let you slip through the gate. Or something like that."
But then you were talking about something quite different :-).
The whole "Cyberpunk" genre was all about this concept, and a few roleplaying games (and a card game) were developed around this kind of concept. But at the time, it was all science-fiction. But now it's sounding less like sci-fi all the time.
The best game designs steal from real life. I think this whole subject is really RIPE for game themes, as you say!
Make the game, man :) It sounds cool :)
And they've already made games playable with your brain, as I mentioned. That struck me as really cool. As long as it's all just outgoing. Maybe. When you can type at conversation-speed or higher, I'll call it good, but I'll demand that the "submit" button require a bit more effort than just a stray thought :)
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The best game designs steal from real life. I think this whole subject is really RIPE for game themes, as you say!
Make the game, man :) It sounds cool :)
And they've already made games playable with your brain, as I mentioned. That struck me as really cool. As long as it's all just outgoing. Maybe. When you can type at conversation-speed or higher, I'll call it good, but I'll demand that the "submit" button require a bit more effort than just a stray thought :)
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