In past posts I’ve described my interactions with the Dragon NaturallySpeaking software which I use to do a lot of typing and mousing, due to repetitive strain in my forearms. As I think I’ve mentioned, you can move the mouse around screen with a certain command (“Mousegrid”) that breaks the screen into nine sections, from which you can choose one and break that section into nine sections etc. etc.

Now, as it might sound, this can be frustratingly slow (though you realize pretty quickly that a certain section is something like “3765” with each number corresponding to a drill down of a section.) I’ve long thought that what would be ideal would be a device that monitors your eyes and moved the cursor correspondingly.

Of course, an even better idea would be a means to read the information directly from your brain. And it turns out scientists are working on that via a technology called neural prosthesis. With modern technology they can identify the patterns in firing neurons related to pressing a button in a certain place on the screen. Theoretically this information can be captured and passed to a microchip that can then pass it to a computer or robot arm.

This video gets into detail about the concept.

Currently the technology is being aimed at quadriplegics. Will this engender an army of formally paralyzed, embittered cybernetic warriors who will lay waste to the earth? Only time will tell…