by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
The smartphone was the last technology that changed lives for the average person in a big way. I propose that if what I believe to be true, is true, that Big Tech can read our minds in some way, then a “soft Singularity” may already be here.
There is technology described in Arthur C. Clarke’s “3001: The Final Odyssey” and the movie “Strange Days” which could probably be implemented in a primitive fashion far, far, sooner than you realize — digital telepathy. Imagine instead of having a cellphone or MX goggles, you could interact directly with your mind.
I’m not going to tell you exactly what I’m suggesting for my own reasons, but in general, there’s one way you could do all of this without accidently giving yourself a lobotomy during the development process. You’re smart, you can figure it out. It would be a lot less intrusive than a Neural Link, that’s for sure. Jesus.
But the point is, all this talk of MX (VR / AR) misses the point. What if the “AR” was a different type of augmented reality. You could record memories recorded via your own eyes — no goggles involved — then zap those same memories to other people wirelessly? But if you hooked MX up to digital telepathy, it sure does make a lot more sense on the adoption front as well. You could watch movies natively within your own mind’s wetwear. Listen to music in your mind, the list goes on.
If you believe — like I do — that Big Tech can read your mind RIGHT NOW, then it makes a lot of sense that the solution to the MX social adaption problem will be solved in a rather unexpected fashion.
I’m not suggesting this will happen anytime soon, but I am suggesting we’re asking some wrong questions about What’s Next. It could be that by 2030 that a big chunk of our economy — and the way we live on a practical basis — will be controlled via digital telepathy.