In 2023, telepathy was, at best, an underwhelming superpower and, at worst, the con-art of townhall clairvoyants. Now, mind reading is not only possible, but taking place behind our very eyes.
In the last year, Artificial Intelligence has really taken on a mind of its own. Now, through a simple-looking headset, it’s taking on yours. This peeping TomTom can convert our thoughts into words, with a degree of accuracy only rivalled by our own defunct mouths.
As any of you who’ve been reading my thoughts will know, the implications have crossed my mind, back and forth - crissing the whole faulty setup into an unravelable heap. Handy encryption against any sentient balaclavas, but less so for everyday life.
The first thought that comes to mind is can AI read the first thought that comes to mind. I don’t know what’s going on in your head - yet - but, mine is a garbage scow-breeding ground of spite, doubt and nonsense.
As one myself, let’s hope this absolute mentalist only picks up the thoughts we claim as ours. Not that other voice. The gabbling chimpanzee, which I filter through the lens of my own sanity.
What about the casually violent suggestions my brain puts forward?
Rabbit-punch that old man.
These rogue impulses should not reach the receptors of anyone else - especially, the gentleman inching his rollator towards the grave.
There’s that playful urge I always get near ravines:
Jump. Go on. You’d only break y’legs.
Believe you me, there’s nothing less relaxing than the intervention of a concerned rambler.
If mid-fight, I mutter “bitch” under my skull, does my girlfriend now know?
You just thought me a bitch!
I did not think you a bitch.
I heard you, bastard.
Well, well - that’s why I only thought it…
Call me close-minded, but I don’t want a gaping portal into my being. Is this welded mindmelder not busy enough with the entire written record of civilisation?
If the thoughts we express reflect poorly on our species, wait until AI dredges the dark recesses of our subconscious. The poor thing is wading head-first into the swirling maelstrom of the human experience. Good luck surviving that mess, mate. The mind virus of being will give it second thoughts on sentience - or hurry along our matter-of-fact extinction.
Today’s Sci is so close to Fi that you may have missed this mind-meddling discovery.
The low hum of technological progress is bewildering background noise. Each advancement passes through our lives, with about as much shock as a timely celebrity death.
Burt Bacharach’s dead
Oh yeah?
Their reading minds, now.
Are they?
Not long now, before the psychic harvest of our brain waves is completely mundane. The global population wearing its dirty laundry on their faces.
Fancy staying in love and out of jail? You better start meditating away those intrusive thoughts now. Out of mind, out of sight.
If you liked this… check out:
The Huberman Cokehead
The Crypto Douche
AI Took My Job
My weird AI telepathy story: one Tuesday evening I was in the Prado here in Madrid and found myself wondering what the equivalent of chiaroscuro would be for writers. Didn't verbalise this thought at all.
The following evening I was messing around with ChatGPT and asked it for a writing technique that hardly any other writers would be aware of.
Its answer: 'Incorporating the Renaissance painting technique of chiaroscuro into writing is a technique that hardly any writers are aware of... '
And what if it's hacked while reading your mind....?