I can foresee a time in the future when telepathy will be commonplace, in terms of two or more people located at vast distances communicating without uttering a single word.
Of course, a clearer definition of telepathy may need to be established here.
Traditionally, telepathy refers to the supposed ability to communicate thoughts or ideas directly from one mind to another without using any known physical means. No speaking, gesturing, or other conventional methods.
I think it's a classic "mind-reading" concept we've come to know in science fiction, where thoughts flow seamlessly between minds.
Some people view telepathy through a spiritual lens, believing it's a natural human ability that we've simply forgotten how to use.
Others see it as pure fantasy.
But I've read that there's also a scientific perspective that considers whether electromagnetic fields in the brain could someday explain such phenomena.
Regardless of which camp you're in, the core idea remains the same: direct mind-to-mind communication without physical intermediaries.
I personally think it is a cool feature embedded in the overall system of a human being, this potential for our minds to transcend the limitations of our physical bodies and connect directly with other conscious beings.
Digital Communication
In a modern context, the twist is probably some form of brain chip will facilitate this possibility, and arguably a prelude of this can be observed (sort of) when we use our smart devices to communicate through the internet without strictly using any physical means of communication.
You think, come up with a set of words, sometimes paragraphs, then click send, and off it goes to get delivered to someone across the globe.
That person or sets of people receive the words, process it with their brains and perhaps also think up some words to further pursue the conversation, and so on, it goes, back and forth, without any single spoken word exchanged.
This digital communication is remarkably similar to telepathy when you break it down. Since your thoughts travel instantly across continents and land directly in someone else's mind through their screen.
The only difference here is we're using smartphones and fiber optic cables instead of pure mental energy.
Bodies Becoming Secondary
This could also be one of the ways to actually observe that the physical body can be perceived more or less as an animated object besides being the vessel through which we experience the world.
I like to observe when people are busy with their smartphones, especially with regards to their physical posture. What I've always picked up in this observation is how their bodies become secondary. Say hunched over, almost statue-like, while their consciousness seems to inhabit the digital space entirely.
A bit similar to when they sleep too, which makes it a bit more tempting to just mention getting so engrossed with your smart device is a form of physical sleep through a temporary departure from bodily awareness while the mind remains active elsewhere.
Besides, when we communicate digitally, our physical presence becomes almost irrelevant, in the sense that geography, appearance, and even our immediate environment fade into the background.
Arguably, one could say what matters is the mind behind the message. But that seems too vague to me as the thoughts, emotions, and intentions that travel through the digital ether can easily get lost in translation and stripped of the nuanced context that physical presence provides.
From Fingers to Thoughts
In essence, we're somewhat already living in an age of proto-telepathy.
The next step, i.e direct brain-to-brain interfaces, would simply be removing the last remaining barriers between thought and transmission.
Companies like Neuralink are already developing brain-computer interfaces that could make this connection even more direct.
I don't want to imagine typing a text message just by thinking it or receiving someone's thoughts as my own internal voice, no matter how extraordinary and transformative that would seem.
But alas, whether we embrace it or resist it, this technological telepathy seems inevitable. The next best thing we can do is to double down on maintaining a sense of individual identity as newer forms of "human connection" start becoming the norm.
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