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This is another level, are you ready?
By the time you finish reading this article, your memory will have recorded new information: at least some conceptual ideas and a couple of photos.
Chemically, this data is then transferred with the help of some proteins from the "working memory" into the "long-term memory".
From what we know, the synaptic firing of a complex of neurons will represent the ideas you memorised.
The memory of Captain Picard will recall information on his appearance, his talking style, and maybe some more representative scenes.
Just now, as you read that sentence, your brain brought back from the long-term memory into the working memory some sort of representation of Captain Picard.
Well, we can identify these patterns and match them to something we already have in the database.
Researchers from California State University have done a study in which they recorded the brain waves of 25 concepts: from countries, people and ideas.
In the span of a few days, they asked the same person to recall one of these concepts, and measured their brain waves again.
With about 75% accuracy, they were able to match the signal to the database and identify which memory was being recalled.
The whole paper is interesting, so do read it, however I'm going to highlight their experiment made on different days: it proves again that our memory recall is not the same each time, and gets more and more distorted.
Thanks to bright scientists, with every day passing we're talking about More Sci and less Fi.
When we're talking about Gaming, the opportunities are just mind-blowing.
Take this Star Wars scenario: Darth Vader holds you captive and asks you where is the rebel camp. Out of 25 possible places described in the game, if your mind goes toward the correct one for more than 2 seconds, Darth Vader finds it and you instantly lose.
We're no longer talking about choosing the right dialogue line, according to an on-line walkthrough.
You are the real deal now, and the rebel camp's safety depends on your mental ability to stay away from that pink elephant thought.
Can you extrapolate and think of more implementations?
If it works in Gaming, it will eventually work in real-life.
Wearing a light neurotech device all-day round can privately record your thoughts, which you can then use to your benefit.
Finding your keys, remembering a name or learning a subject much quicker.
Today's technology is very dependendant on our individual minds.
My memory of a carrot will have a different pattern than your memory of a carrot (did you think of a carrot just now?). Use-cases for forensic investigations are still a bit far, at least from what we know, but definitely possible in the future.
The responsible side of our consciousness reminds us that this can and will probably be also used in destructive ways. That's why for every drop of enthusiasm generated by new technology, we're adding another line to our pledge of promoting its ethical use.
