Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A Forgotten Adventure with a Telepathic Tribe

news.nationalgeographic.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 30 posts

Re: A Forgotten Adventure with a Telepathic Tribe

#11

Post by mmjaa »

wthigo wrote: post #8
mmjaa wrote: post #5

I would love for the species to develop Telepathy. Since I was a child I've dreamed of the day (sci-fi drove me there), and I feel that we inch closer and closer as the Internet grows by day ..

careful what you wish for, everyone has their dark side

That truly is the beauty of thinking about it, and letting imagination temper itself with the banality of reality.

Like, for example, the experience of having watched the birth of the Internet, and seen it actually channel itself into 4chan, parish, et al., was .. yeah .. kinda enlightening.

If we Get Telepathic, its going to be useful to have gotten over such things. Just a hunch.

Re: A Forgotten Adventure with a Telepathic Tribe

#12

Post by mmjaa »

djrogers wrote: post #7
mmjaa wrote: post #5

I would love for the species to develop Telepathy. Since I was a child I've dreamed of the day (sci-fi drove me there), and I feel that we inch closer and closer as the Internet grows by day ..

> I would love for the species to develop Telepathy. I pray if we do it's opt-in, and not driven by advertising...

Yeah, I think actually it really is opt-in, and that may just well be the reason it "doesn't work".

Re: A Forgotten Adventure with a Telepathic Tribe

#13

Post by mmjaa »

jobigoud wrote: post #6
mmjaa wrote: post #5

I would love for the species to develop Telepathy. Since I was a child I've dreamed of the day (sci-fi drove me there), and I feel that we inch closer and closer as the Internet grows by day ..

I think one avenue almost feasible today would be: Electromyography on the larynx > silent speech recognition > transmission of the data through wireless network > speech synthesis > ouput audio to wireless earphone. If you implant both ends you have something indistinguishable from (consensual) telepathy.

So just a couple "apt update && apt upgrade"'s away, and we're there ..

Re: A Forgotten Adventure with a Telepathic Tribe

#14

Post by mmjaa »

oelmekki wrote: post #9
wthigo wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

careful what you wish for, everyone has their dark side

And an exceptional front light side. I'm always amazed how most people give the best of themselves during casual social encounters. The big effort we do in social interactions is kind of an art, we're not so good in daily life with our close ones, simply because we can't maintain that effort for so long. Telepathy would ruin this, I guess.

It depends if there were some sort of control mechanism for just how much telepathy was 'allowed' - like, its not - imho - full mind-reading, but rather "selective understanding" from the target sides' point of view .. I wouldn't want to know everything, just a few things during actual real incidents. Therefore, there still has to be a line between individual choice and social sharing.

Re: A Forgotten Adventure with a Telepathic Tribe

#15

Post by fallingfrog »

I can't believe the claim, since telepathy has never been demonstrated- however! I think I have to admit that there isn't any law of physics that says telepathy is impossible, theoretically. It would certainly be possible over short distances if humans had specialized organs for transmitting and receiving electrical signals, like an electric eel does. Since we don't have that organ, the signals a human brain can produce are very weak, which is why they put electrodes right on your scalp and not a few inches away. If telepathy could occur, it would have to be in a very electrically quiet place like the Amazon. It could be that telepathy is real but just never tested in an electrically quiet enough environment. The modern world is shockingly noisy- cell phones, radio towers, the power grid, and wifi hubs all produce constant electrical noise. Even in the Amazon I'd say the probability that this is real is very very low, but hey, who knows.

Re: A Forgotten Adventure with a Telepathic Tribe

#16

Post by TeMPOraL »

SCHiM wrote: post #10

Let's not forget that speaking/talking is telepathy, right people? Speech crosses all the boxes: -- It's invisible, travels via 'waves' -- The 'waves' I use to speak can cause your brain to show you images -- It can convey emotions, thoughts, images. -- It can be used to persuade others, change the way they think about a subject. -- **tree**. Did it work? Did you see a tree? Of course recognising that speech really d…

Long-distance telepathy if you do it over a phone.

I think IMs on smartphones are closest we are to sci-fi long-range telepathic connection from practical standpoint though.

Re: A Forgotten Adventure with a Telepathic Tribe

#18

Post by p1esk »

SCHiM wrote: post #10

Let's not forget that speaking/talking is telepathy, right people? Speech crosses all the boxes: -- It's invisible, travels via 'waves' -- The 'waves' I use to speak can cause your brain to show you images -- It can convey emotions, thoughts, images. -- It can be used to persuade others, change the way they think about a subject. -- **tree**. Did it work? Did you see a tree? Of course recognising that speech really d…

Yes, but the "real" telepathy is when you can picture, in your head, the exact tree I'm picturing in my head, without me doing anything to help you.

Sounds pretty sci-fi, until you read about recent brain to brain communication experiments.

Re: A Forgotten Adventure with a Telepathic Tribe

#19

Post by shostack »

p1esk wrote: post #18
SCHiM wrote: post #10

Let's not forget that speaking/talking is telepathy, right people? Speech crosses all the boxes: -- It's invisible, travels via 'waves' -- The 'waves' I use to speak can cause your brain to show you images -- It can convey emotions, thoughts, images. -- It can be used to persuade others, change the way they think about a subject. -- **tree**. Did it work? Did you see a tree? Of course recognising that speech really d…

Yes, but the "real" telepathy is when you can picture, in your head, the exact tree I'm picturing in my head, without me doing anything to help you. Sounds pretty sci-fi, until you read about recent brain to brain communication experiments.

I think one needs to only look as far as usage of gifs and emoji and Snapchat/Instagram to see how fast that will be adopted once the I/O devices improve.

Re: A Forgotten Adventure with a Telepathic Tribe

#20

Post by njharman »

mmjaa wrote: post #5

I would love for the species to develop Telepathy. Since I was a child I've dreamed of the day (sci-fi drove me there), and I feel that we inch closer and closer as the Internet grows by day ..

Why?

Telepathy seems like a nightmare or curse. Esp if it comes quickly. As in without millions of years of evolution to adapt socially to it.

Post reply on HN