NewScientist (18 July 2015, paywall) discusses recent, incredible advances in the realm of brain-to-brain linkages:
TWO heads are better than one, and three monkey brains can control an avatar better than any single monkey. For the first time, animal brains have been linked to form a living computer.
If human brains could be similarly connected, it might give us superhuman problem-solving abilities and allow us to send abstract thoughts to each other. “It is really exciting,” says Iyad Rahwan at the Masdar Institute in the United Arab Emirates. “It will change the way humans cooperate.”
The work builds on standard brain-machine interfaces – devices that have enabled people and animals to control machines and prosthetic limbs by thought alone. These tend to work by converting the brain’s electrical activity into signals that a computer can interpret. …
By synchronising their thoughts, the monkeys were able to move the arm to reach a target on the screen – at which point the team rewarded them with juice. …
The ability to share thought could enable us to solve complex problems. “Sometimes it’s really hard to collaborate if you are a mathematician and you’re thinking about very complex and abstract objects,” says Stocco. “If you could collaboratively solve common problems [using a brainet], it would be a way to leverage the skills of different individuals for a common goal.”
This research is at Duke University, in the lab of Dr. Nicolelis.
Fascinating stuff – although it makes me wonder if, in the future, being part of a team will be a far more intimate experience than I, perhaps, might find comfortable. Kudos to those of you who immediately thought of author Keith Laumer. However, if you can actually name the story, Retief’s Ransom, then perhaps you need to get out more.
