Mind Games

In the olden days, we had an Atari 2600 with a joystick for a game controller (don't ask me how that term got coined, I don't know). We played all sorts of games from Pong to Tank Battle, a game I could never seem to win with Dad. We finished each gaming session with sore thumbs and palms, but we had fun playing.

I've been away from gaming for a long time. I guess I'm just not that into games, but this post on Slashdot caught my eye. The Neurogamers Expo? They could be paving the road to playing mind games as they experiment with and perfect the the brain computer interface.

Here is what makes their work significant. To start, they could enable an entirely new workforce formerly incapable of working on computers. For example, Iraq War veterans who have suffered hand injuries that prevent them from typing could type and move a mouse again. They may even become so proficient with their minds while working on their computers, that they can outperform people who can type and move a mouse by hand.

I believe that the brain computer interface will become far more efficient that what we use now. Keyboards and mice will be with us for a long time to come, but they will be supplanted and eventually replaced by the brain computer interface.

This is the dawn of the commercially available brain computer interface. Are you ready?