Electronic Telepathy May Come in 2017, Experts Say

A lot of people consider 2016 to be a very bad year in terms of news, but a lot of technological improvements happened regardless. Now some are convinced that the first true brain-to-brain communication in people could start next year, especially due to huge recent advances.

The concept of telepathy has been a concept that people have been exploring for a while. Given that our brains work in unique ways and the way we think is influenced by experiences and memories, the brain is truly a mystery even until today.

However, neuroscientists postulate that if we can learn an individual's patterns, we may be able to trigger certain thoughts in the brain. In theory, we may be able to use another person's brain activity to trigger these thoughts.

According to New Scientist, researchers have been able to get two people sitting in different rooms to play 20 Questions on a computer. They were able to transmit yes or no answers courtesy of EEG caps that monitored their brain activity.

According to New Scientist, a method called transcranial magnetic stimulation triggered electrical currents in the other person's brain. And if we push this further, even lead to the detection of thought processes. This may allow them to influence another person, and even the decisions they may take.

Other approaches include using brain activity of several individuals to be brought together on a single electronic device. Animals are seen doing this already, as three monkeys with brain implants have learned to think together and control and move a robotic arm.

Rats have also been connected in a "brainet," which means it's only a matter of time before human versions of brainets are made. These may even not need invasive surgery, and even just use EEG caps.

Their first users may be people who are paralyzed as hooking a brainet to a robotic suit could, for example, enable them to get help from someone else when learning to use exoskeletons.