Saturday 15 June 2013

Hello, future

I was having a discussion with a lecturer of mine about my own futures. The ones that might happen, and the ones that I would like to happen. In this discussion, he brought up a number of projects that I might like to be involved in during my time at university, and he mentioned using neuroheadsets as user-interfaces.

The idea of a neuroheadset is a real thing, but once upon a time it was wild. It used to be a denizen confined to our fantastic imagined futures, but now they are manufactured and put into boxes. This thing is deeply ingrained in the previous mythologies of tomorrow. At one stage it was impossible nonsense. Impossible nonsense that now comes in a box.

Everything happened really quickly after that. I was talking about the things that interested me, while trying to remain cool about the fact that I seemed to have walked right into a William Gibson novel, and I ended up signing for this impossible nonsense in a box.

The way they arrive in your life totally defies the mythology. There are no nondescript black cases. The box is the very essence of consumer electronics, al the way down to the topless, Hong Kong neo-pop princess on the front. It is a product that is brain computer interface technology. It says so right there on the box. Nothing appears to be hand crafted, which makes sense, because apparently we are living in the future now. You want it to be made with the loving consistency that only a machine can repeat. There was no secret transport ritual. I took it home on the train.

I am studying for an exam for another subject, so for the time being it stays in the box. Well, it has gone back into the box.

I kid you not, this is literally the kind of thing I have been fantasising about for at least twenty years.

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