Debate: Will brain-computer interfaces replace smartphones and other “mediating” devices?

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The Fifth Indus­tri­al Rev­o­lu­tion: where mind meets machine (The National):

The Fifth Indus­tri­al Rev­o­lu­tion will make that con­nec­tion clos­er and seam­less, and will feel unmedi­at­ed. The smart device onto which we tap and into which we speak will dis­ap­pear. Brain-com­put­er inter­faces will replace them…Can we con­nect our brains – and our minds – to machines? The short answer is yes, and we have done so for some time. The longer answer is more com­pli­cat­ed, but more interesting.

Until a few years ago, machines were con­nect­ed to the brain and the ner­vous sys­tem prin­ci­pal­ly for med­ical pur­pos­es – for exam­ple, to treat Parkinson’s dis­ease or repair spinal cord injuries. Most recent­ly, research has focused on oth­er, non-ther­a­peu­tic uses, and some of the most high-pro­file invest­ment in such tech­nol­o­gy comes from Face­book, Google, Ama­zon and Elon Musk’s Neu­ralink. This is where the Fifth Indus­tri­al Rev­o­lu­tion is in the making…

The direc­tion of trav­el is clear. The sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy are pro­gress­ing quick­ly, for ther­a­peu­tic and lifestyle or com­mer­cial appli­ca­tions. The demand is grow­ing and the under­ly­ing Fourth Indus­tri­al Rev­o­lu­tion tech­nolo­gies are going to make this a reality.

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