11.3.1 Thought Sharing

With neurons interfacing with artificial devices, and fast networks, it'll be possible for people to share their thoughts. We already do that to a certain extent. Every time you call someone on the phone, or write someone an email, it is already sharing thoughts.

However, sharing thoughts at the neuron level is fundamentally different from sharing thoughts at a language (spoken or written) level. First of all, some translation still needs to occur. No two individual store concepts and ideas in the same way. This translation, unlike lingual translation, does not involve grammar as we know it. It'll involve a basic ``mapping'' of the nervous system by subjecting it to various stimuli, and recording how the system responses to each stimulus.

Assuming idea and concept representation can be mapped, thought communication will be, by today's standard, an interesting experience. I am guessing that it'll feel like split personality, with one personality conversing with the other personality all in the mind. Except, of course, that the ``other'' personality is really another person.