The thought police are at it again…


Backchat has learnt that it is now possible for the average computer to tell what’s going on in your mind. Well, we always knew they were brighter than us, didn’t we?


We’re led to believe its all about detecting brainwaves, spikes of cranial activity, which are then converted into signals that your average computer can understand. (Which means, for a start, that they’re not quite as bright as we’ve been led to believe, after all!) But there’s always a drawback, isn’t there… to make this possible, you have to wear a ridiculous hat, which is wired to the computer. And it’s the hat that picks up these noddle nodes. This might be good for the economy in Luton, but are we really ready for the electronic Trilby?

brainwaves to pcs?


Its all hair brained, if you ask me. And personally, I’d sooner stick spikes in my head than have some computer reading my brain waves. I, for one, am not ready for some demented Cox’s Orange or the other to say, ‘Hang on, Backchat, is this wise? Are you sure you’ve really finished with me?’ before I’ve even reached for my mouse, let alone had a chance to click on Log Off. Bog off, I say.

On second thoughts, don't read my lips!

And on frighteningly similar lines, NASA is apparently at it again. Not in space this time, but they might just as well be.

They claim to have worked out a way of telling what a person is about to say before they've even thought of saying it. Or, to put it another way, a way for people to speak without actually speaking. Can you believe that?

Its all about these damned computers and reading brainwaves again but NASA have taken it one stage further (well, they would do, wouldn't they), with what they laughingly call the Silent Speech Interface. Silent Speech? Oh well. Using it, the PC will not only show you what you are about to say before you've had a chance of saying it, it will even mimic you saying it. Not only that, it will put you in touch with your nearest mobile, if you wish, so you can say it to someone else - in a silent conversation, no doubt.

brainwaves to pcs?

So what’s the purpose of this mumble-jumbo, you may well ask. At this point it starts to make sense. Because its aim is to make it easier for NASA astronauts to talk to Earth; or, in everyday terms, for people to communicate more easily in a chaotic, noisy environment, such as that monthly product progress meeting, for example. BackChat can see it all now. Instead of not having the bottle to speak your mind when the boss is behaving like a total wally again, your friendly PC will do it for you. And you can even look him, or her of course, straight in they eye while you’re doing so. He, or she, will never know who it is.

Technology. Wherever would we be without it?