Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
Silent Talk 'Telepathy' For Soldiers
Silent Talk is the name of a new DARPA project to “allow user-to-user communication on the battlefield without the use of vocalized speech through analysis of neural signals.” And yes, that's in addition to the money spent to investigate wireless transmission of decoded thoughts.
The intent of the program is to detect "pre-speech" - word-specific neural signals in the brain, analyze them and then send the content to team members.
Obviously, they're just in the investigative stage. DARPA wants to know if it is possible to map EEG patterns to individual words - for one person. Then, determine if everyone has similar patterns. Finally, decode the pattern and broadcast the words to team mates in the field.
The more I learn about DARPA's intentions regarding improving soldier capabilities, the more I think they're trying to create the Meks from Jack Vance's Hugo and Nebula award-winning 1967 novel The Last Castle.
(The Mek solitary - The Last Castle, by Jack Vance)
The Mek was a manlike creature... native... to a planet of Etamin. His tough rusty-brown hide glistened metallically as if oiled or waxed; the spines thrusting back from head and neck shone like gold, and indeed were coated with a conductive copper-chrome film...His maw, a vertical irregular cleft at the base of this 'face' was an obsolete organ by reason of the syrup sac which had been introduced under the skin of the shoulders...
This was the Mek solitary, a creature intrinsically as effective as man - perhaps more by virtue of his superb brain which also functioned as a radio transceiver...
The Meks are able to share the substance of their thoughts with each other by transmitting brain pattern signals using the conductive spines.
DARPA is already working on the idea of the "syrup sac", creating transdermal patches to deliver essential nutrients (see DARPA Seeks Metabolic Dominance).
Readers may also be thinking of the Borg, whose members are retrofitted with a neuro-transceiver that links every drone into the collective. See Synthetic Telepathy For US Military Borg-Style for more information and a video.
(The Borg neuro-transceiver)
I also think that Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven should get some credit for their work on the idea of a communications implant from their 1981 novel Oath of Fealty. They describe what amounts to computer-mediated telepathy in great detail, and in a variety of situations.
In her 1931 story The Conquest of Gola, L.F. Stone made an interesting distinction between "regular" telepathy and the mechanically-mediated kind with her mechanical thought transformers.
From Wired; thanks to Moira for the tip on this one (welcome back!).
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 5/16/2009)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 8 )
Related News Stories - (" Communication ")
Huawei Pura X Folding Phattie Phone
Why can't we get more innovative phone configurations?
Positioned Cybertrucks With Free Starlinks WiFi In LA
'Several thousand of them formed the positioning grid on the rubble pile.' Vernor Vinge, 1999.
Will Whales Be Our First Contact?
'He had piloted the Adastra to its first contact with the civilization of another solar system.' - Murray Leinster, 1935.
NYC/Dublin Portal Fails To Meet 'Guardian Of Forever' Standards
I am the Guardian of Forever.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
LLM 'Cognitive Core' Now Evolving
'Their only check on the growth and development of Vulcan 3 lay in two clues: the amount of rock thrown up to the surface... and the amount of the raw materials and tools and parts which the computer requested.'
Has Elon Musk Given Up On Mars?
'There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.'
Bacteria Turns Plastic Into Pain Relief? That Gives Me An Idea.
'I guess there's nobody round this table who doesn't have a Crosswell [tapeworm] working for him in the small intestine.'
When Your Child's Best Friend Is An AI
'Figments of his mind in one sense, of course, for he had shaped them...'
China's Drone Mothership Can Carry 100 Drones
'So the parent drone carries a spotter that it launches...'
Drones Recharge In Mid-Air Like Jets Refuel!
'...nurse drones that would cruise around dumping large amounts of power into randomly selected pods.'
Australian Authors Reject AI Training Of Llama
'It's done with a flip of the third joint of the tentacle on the down beat.'
Is China Mining Helium-3 On The Moon's Farside?
'...for months Grantline bores had dug into the cliff.'
Maybe It's Too Soon To Require Autonomous Mode
'I hope all those other cars are on automatic,' he said anxiously.
Is Agentic AI The Wrong Kind Of Smartness?
'It’s smart enough to go wrong in very complicated ways, but not smart enough to help us find out what’s wrong.'
Heat Waver - The First Ever Combo Solar Collector And Wind Turbine
'...like a spray of tulips mounted fanwise.'
Tesla 'Fleet Response Agents' Bolster FSD Autonomy
'You hate the whole idea that some bored drone pusher in a remote driving centre has got your life... in his hands.'
Mori3 Autonomous Shapeshifting Robot
'My homeland is being threatened by the Replicators. Thus far all attempts to stop them have failed.'
Tesla Seeks 'Tesla Robotaxi' And 'Robobus' Trademarks Ignoring Prior Art
'A robobus had just rolled up to the curb.'
Scary Grid Safety Robots
'The ultimate horror for our paranoid culture...'
Does AI Provide A Way Forward For Talk Therapy
'And there in the next room by the sofa sat a familiar suitcase, that of his psychiatrist Dr. Smile.'
