Page - 81 - in Cyborg Mind - What Brain–Computer and Mind–Cyberspace Interfaces Mean for Cyberneuroethics

Neuronal Interface Systems • 81 may also sit at home and obtain the same basic visual experience as being in a big-screen cinema or join with other players to compete in a multiple online game. Whole body suits extend the experience even further. As well as a 3D head-mounted screen, users can wear motion sensors positioned at all major joints. When they then move through empty warehouse-sized buildings, cameras track their every position and the virtual world image in the headset is changed by the computer using the information from their own sensors and any sensors worn by other players. Already used by some security forces, the technology allows commandos to practise different situations, such as a simulated rescue, which increases their training experiences. How much of this technology may eventually be bypassed in the future by replacing the information coming from the different senses, such as the visual or auditory senses, with equivalent artificial information which can be sent directly into the brain is an open question. But some neuronal interfaces may far exceed what is presently imaginable. Sensory Suites Sensory suites in which a person pulls on a whole or a part of clothing, making it possible to experience certain physical feelings, are also being envis- aged. An interface with computers would then exist, which would enable the user to wear the suits and be completely immersed in a computer-generated cyber-environment. As such, the individual may find it increasingly difficult to know whether he or she is in real or virtual reality. The previously mentioned ‘brain in a glass vat’ thought experiment, in which the same information from a com- puter is given to a brain in a vat as is given to a brain in a normal human head, making it impossible for the brain in the vat to know where it is, would then increasingly become relevant. Neuronal Interfaces and Telepathy In addition, it has been suggested that a form of telepathy could, one day, be developed through wearable mobile phones that would pick up and send brain signals to users seeking to communicate.156 According to researchers at the U.S. company Intel, individuals in the future may no longer need a mouse or a keyboard to control their computers, televisions and mobile phones, since these will be replaced by brain signals.157 The American Andrew Chien, vice president of research and director of future technologies research at Intel research laboratories, even indicated in 2009: ‘If you told people 20 years ago that they would be carrying computers all the time, they would have said, “I don’t want that. I don’t need that.” Now you can’t get them to stop [carrying devices]. There are a lot of things that This open access edition has been made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched. Not for resale.