Future Applications of Brain Computer Interface: A New Socio-Technical Paradigm

The Present

Concrete evidence of direct brain-to-brain communication between human beings being feasible has been documented in mainstream research since at least 2014. Yet as of 2022, most human beings have yet to see, experience or benefit from industrial, commercial/consumer or household Brain Computer Interface (BCI) products or applications.

As of 2022, predominantly, discussion, narratives and research in BCI technology revolve mainly around use cases in the areas of health, medicine and wellness, if not in neurogaming, despite conclusive evidence of feasibilities of very significant (and useful) game-changing use cases in a far wider array of contexts, some of which I will expand on further ahead in this article.

Furthermore, there remains a stubborn persistence of the idea of BCI having to be intrusive, involving intravenous and invasive implantation into the human physique, despite conclusive evidence having been established that BCI does not have/need to be intrusive, intravenous or invasive.

Definition

BCI refers to technological mediation that allows for direct communication between the brain's activity (basically, thought) and an external computing system.

Caveat

I have to concede upfront that much of the content ahead herein, describes a very distant future. However, the purpose of this article is to inspire and instigate thoughts of reverse engineering of the imminent future applications at "the end of a line", to bring some of the elements of that future closer to our immediate present, as more near-term products, for the benefit of current generations of consumers.

The Future Applications

Nothing ever happens in a silo. Along with the progress of BCI, there has been rapid progress up to the present day across a wide array of technological areas such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cloud Computing, cellular networks and so on. The future applications I attempt to describe herein, will manifest resulting from convergences with a wide array of those different and separate technologies that have been concurrently progressing and evolving as such.

Human-to-Human Communication

Currently, human communication is limited to our ability to translate our thoughts to words, and our ability to understand the words of those who are trying to communicate their thoughts to us. The limitation is further compounded, by differences in linguistic knowledge, linguistic abilities, cultural contexts, intellectual and academic backgrounds, and so on. Add to all of that, the element, or rather the issue, of trust. In communication, we have to "take each other's word for it".

The future of communication which will result from a convergence of BCI with AI, Virtual Reality (VR) and the cloud , is brain-to-brain, where we directly connect our thoughts to each other, so that we gain access each other's minds to think exactly what the other is thinking. It will redefine the adage of putting ourselves into each other's shoes. We will thus transcend not only barriers between different languages and differentials in levels of linguistic capabilities, but also the limitations of language itself. What we cannot possibly communicate with words in any known language, we will be able to relay and understand with BCI mediation. We certainly won't be needing translation or a "universal language" anymore.

The type of communication I describe in the preceding paragraph would mean an unprecedented level of transparency. To put it precisely, there will be complete transparency. There will be no lying or hiding anymore. No more untruth. We will know with absolute certainty, the degree of objectivity and rationality in the thought processes of each other. The dishonest will certainly be beating the drums of privacy to resist the advent of such communication channels. If someone is lying, we will know that that person is lying, because we will be in that person's mind literally.

Think of the upside. For example, if you love someone, and you profess that love to the one whom you love, that person will have no room to doubt your sincerity, whatever the preceding perception of you that he or she may have. That, regardless of whether the feelings are mutual. The truth about what you feel at least will be clear.

Oral traditions and history will take on a whole new form. We will be able to transfer our entire life memories to each other voluntarily and instantaneously. And precisely because of that, "versions of truth" will not be a notion that will be able to persist. For historians of the future, it will be about adjudicating between memories of persons with differing or opposing views or perspectives.

Whether we are interacting face-to-face or remotely over a long distance, BCI will mediate our communication, so that will understand anything that is being communicated, with the same understanding, with no room for perceptive differences, misinterpretations, misunderstandings, deceit or anything at all being lost in translation.

Presentation slides will become obsolete. A Keynote Speaker or a Presenter will be able to guide the attention of the audience by transferring brain-to-brain, in real-time, precisely what he or she visualizes, in relation to the piece of information being discussed or presented.

Human-Technology Interaction

How much work we get done in our deskbound jobs or tasks today is limited to a huge extent by our ability to use our fingers to input information into our devices, be it phones, tablets or personal computers.

Via BCI, in collaboration with Smart AI applications and the help of Web 3.0, we will be able to prepare important documents without the need of proofreading or editing with ease, even on the move, simply with our thoughts.

We will be able to produce music, moving visuals for all kinds of purposes, design models and visual plans, by simply imagining and letting BCI devices read and record our imagination. The arts, creative and entertainment industries will change forever with the disappearance of bars beyond one's ability to imagine. The sounds one imagines in the mind without the ability to translate those sounds on instruments, devices or notes will be heard by others. Visuals, that one cannot put onto canvas or screen with one's hands will be seen by others. By extension of that, the economic or financial bar to producing artistic or creative work, and distributing it, in the era of X Reality, will no longer exist.

With BCI, we will be able to create and construct entire Virtual Worlds (Metaverses) of our own, entirely from raw and sheer imagination. This will have far reaching impacts on the rules of commerce and economics. Any individual, with the intellectual capacity, will be able to create a new virtual marketplace of his or her own in cyberspace and X Reality at will. This will entirely create new dynamics of Change Management and Competition in business, supplanting completely all the dynamics that have previously been known. Futureproofing will be an entirely new challenge as never known before.

An understatement, is that wrestling with document settings before printing it out on paper will not be an experience that will exist. What one thinks or imagines, technology will instantly execute with pinpoint accuracy. We will achieve virtual omnipotence.

Most importantly in human-technology interaction, BCI will mean us being able to go inside of technology, remotely via the cloud.

We will literally surf the internet, transcending the physical-virtual divide, where rather than accessing it through devices in our hands, we will mentally dive into the worldwide web to scan for information, which will no longer have to be limited to text or visual form alone. This means the ability of scanning for information by will, without limits, without relying on time-consuming keyword attempts, from unlimited sources simultaneously, with the internet feeding us information custom-fitting our preferences that the internet would actively identify in real-time. If the information we seek exists, we will certainly acquire it instantly at will. Otherwise, we will know it does not, without any time being wasted at all. This will be as close as we get to achieving omniscience.

We will be able to remotely operate physically in multiple locations simultaneously, achieving a sense of omnipresence, with remote physical machines serving as surrogates to support our remote presence. This will be through the convergence of BCI with machine vision and haptics.

Personal

Despite all the "Look Maa, No Hands!" benefits of BCI with regards to our communication with each other, and how we utilize technology for all external purposes without limits, the biggest revolution that BCI will actually cause for the human experience, will be at the very intimate personal level, for each individual.

BCI will play a role into reducing deathbed regrets for individuals, by mitigating the question of "what could have been"?

Missed opportunities of love and romance, unrequited love, unamicable breakups, personal losses are some of the hardest human experiences to have to live with. With BCI, people will be able to create closed personal Virtual Worlds of their own, in which, they will be able to create unshared experiences with others despite the absence of participation from those others, leveraging and building upon the most scant memories.

You will be able to bring to "life" in a personal virtual space with your mind, the persons you are no longer in touch with or never shared an actual relationship with or persons who are no longer alive in the actual physical world, and you will be able create your own lifelike haptics driven simulated experience of relationships with those persons. For example, a dinner date with that person from college, that you never were able to muster the courage to ask out. Admittedly, there will definitely be severe criticism of such concepts now as well as ahead, and those criticisms will be rather predictable from the standpoints of ethics, privacy, safety, security and mental wellbeing. It will be a debate worth following over the coming decades, and that is an understatement as massive as any can possibly be.

BCI will enable people to live out "happy and "normal relationships", by means of their own private virtual simulations originating from their own imagination, with people whom they never would have had a chance to be in relationships with within the actual reality. And in those simulated relationships, which would be one-sided, there'd be no conflicts, no break-ups, no heartbreaks and no loss through death. Loneliness solved. Rejection will be a lot less painful. It will definitely beat depression or substance abuse.

Alternatively, BCI will enable people to create their own "people". It won't require any skill. They will just have to imagine, and via BCI, AI will create those "people" for them. And as such, BCI will enable users to bring to "life" persons who have never actually existed, purely from imagination, within their personal simulated realities. And it is possible, that there will be people who will live out their entire lives in relationships of all sorts, with persons who have never actually existed. For example, an orphan may manifest his or her own simulated parents and siblings from imagination, other relatives and then also a love interest, whom he or she may wed virtually, and then manifest children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren that don't exist, experiencing interactions with them all through holographic and haptic interactions. Users who create such "persons" of their own will be able to experience touching and embracing them as if they were real.

BCI will also enable people to experience living in alternative states of being, transcending age, gender, species, ethnicity and so on.

Currently, work is already being done, using VR alone, to mediate the process of people experiencing a "body swap".

The future, with BCI, would mean using the mind to wholly simulate the experience of a body swap, either with another real person (or animal), or with someone or something that does not actually exist.

The implication of "swapping bodies" through BCI would mean experiencing life beyond arbitrary limitations set by nature at birth. For example, it would mean a skinny, physically limited person, experiencing life in the body of a fit, physically able bodybuilder. Or, consider human beings experiencing life in the bodies of animals such as lions, penguins, eagles, snakes or whales, with AI assistance through BCI.

Conclusion

BCI is yet in its earliest nascent stage. It is conclusive however, that it is feasible and it does not have to be invasive. It is also the most important frontier yet in our technological progress and development. It is the key, to removing all boundaries between humans and technologies, and therefore, all limits, to acquiring desired experiences, whether for work, communication or personal living.

Harish Shah?is Singapore's first local born Professional?Futurist?and a Management Strategy Consultant. He runs?Stratserv Consultancy. His areas of consulting and?Keynote?Topics include EmTech, Industry 4.0, HR, Digital Transformation, Product Development, X Reality,?Marketing,?Strategic Foresight,?Systems Thinking?and?Organisational Future Proofing. In an?Open Letter?in 2019, Harish has called on his fellow Futurists around the world to raise the emphasize upon the need for Environmental Salvation, in the course of their work.

In 2022, Harish released his first Futurist eBook titled:?Life in Techtopia?(available for free reading, download or request in PDF format)