Cost-reduce and improve cochlear implant technology to the point where everyone can have a wireless, public-key encrypted, self-powered speaker in their ear canal. Develop PDAs, telephones, pagers, cars, communicators, etc that use the technology and eliminate this cacophony of pager beeps, cell phone rings, and watch chimes around us. Let your car whisper in your ear when you left the lights on. Have your PDA read your mail to you, silently. Develop a real-time voice recogition speech translator for it (call it Babelfish?) If the fidelity can be improved, perhaps do it in stereo?
I suppose the Gibson-esque throat microphone would follow. Combine the two with a walkie-talkie and you pretty much have electronically-assisted telepathy. Talk to your friend privately across the meeting table, or speak to a whole room without a PA system.-- koz, Mar 09 2000 Be spammed as you walk or drive down the street. Small transmitters on billboards or hung from lightposts. 'Pirate' audio blasting into your ears from cheap and tiny electronics. Eek...-- StarChaser, Mar 12 2000 Well, that's why you put public-key encryption on it. Maybe have two channels, one that's always available, on your public key, and a second that's open to the world, but has a shutoff somewhere.-- koz, Mar 12 2000 I think Neal Stephenson's novel 'Diamond Age' makes a reference to visual cortex spamming.-- ps, Mar 21 2000 Fantastic idea. Speak to people clearly in loud clubs or bars. Shut off people you don't care to hear. The karaoke appliications alone are staggering.-- ejs, May 17 2001 I think the other sort of telepathy is cheaper (but not as reliable).-- angel, May 18 2001 Please read this: http://www.craphound.com/ down/ It concerns ad hoc networks and ubiquitous computing implanted in people. It is also funny. Corey Doctorow wrote it. What I find most interesting is the social capital. dslreports has a kind of social capital in their forums.-- bob_c, Jul 23 2003 Bernice! Bernice! Cleanup in aisle three! Bernice!-- beland, Oct 31 2003 random, halfbakery