[General Battuta]

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have nerve-cap transmitters that allow you to meld your thoughts with another person, as if your brains were physically connected? Could you listen to their thoughts? See what they see? Or is it beyond the brain's capability to handle that much input?

A living model exists. Two separate personalities with distinct consciousnesses, which appear to be sharing wetware.

The sensory area called the thalamus is physically bridged between the two, but suspicions of sharing seems to go beyond shared visual fields (each individual effectively has four eyes) and into true telepathy. As the twins mature it will hopefully become apparent whether they can actually share each other's thoughts.

Hopefully these individuals will open up pathways for humans to network brains or to expand their own cognitive architecture with computer-simulated brain matter.

[Snail]

Cooooooooooool

[The E]

Is it still Telepathy though? It's not like they're actually separate entities...

[Snail]

Is it still Telepathy though? It's not like they're actually separate entities...

Separate consciousnesses?

[General Battuta]

Is it still Telepathy though? It's not like they're actually separate entities...

Are they? They appear to display separate personalities. If they could be viably physically separated, they would be, and they would probably then develop as individuals. They may be analogous to two physically separate entities who have nerve-cap transmitters on their thalamic neurons.

Of course there's a possibility that they have developed special network architecture from birth which could not be easily replicated in two adult brains.

[The E]

Yeah, and this is really awesome (if slightly scary).

But Telepathy implies thought transfer at a distance; if you have two consciousnesses technically running on the same hardware, there's bound to be _some_ overlap.

Also, I bet there's a difference between being connected like this since birth, and retrofitting this.

[Flipside]

Well, if schizophrenia can exist, I'd say that was evidence that it was possible, and I mean true schizophrenia, two seperate personalities in the same mind, not the more common version of someone trying to escape into an alternate personality. It shows the Wetware can, in certain cases, keep two completely different perspectives in the same unit (the mind).

I agree with the 'E' that it's not Telepathy, more like 'Networking', or possibly 'User Accounts'

Also, I bet there's a difference between being connected like this since birth, and retrofitting this.

Agreed, the fact the brains grew in that state probably account for the compatibility to a large extent, the brain simply worked with what it was given from a blank slate.

[Shade]

Definitely not telepathy. If nothing else, the whole 'tele' bit is kinda missing when they're physically connected. What's really interesting about this is that it seems to prove that the human brain is capable is dealing with the kind of input telepathy might give you. Like an extra set of eyes, percieving thoughts that aren't your own, etc.

And that alone is quite something.

[General Battuta]

Yeah, and this is really awesome (if slightly scary).

But Telepathy implies thought transfer at a distance; if you have two consciousnesses technically running on the same hardware, there's bound to be _some_ overlap.

Sure, but you could fake the physical connection with nerve-cap transmitters assuming you're in close proximity. Ping's gonna be a real concern, though!

Also, I bet there's a difference between being connected like this since birth, and retrofitting this.

Agreed, the fact the brains grew in that state probably account for the compatibility to a large extent, the brain simply worked with what it was given from a blank slate.

Yeah, that was what I was trying to get at here - "Of course there's a possibility that they have developed special network architecture from birth which could not be easily replicated in two adult brains."

Definitely not telepathy. If nothing else, the whole 'tele' bit is kinda missing when they're physically connected.

Yes, just like telephones aren't telephones when physically connected by a landline

oh wait.

Might want to rethink that one a bit, home slice!

Direct communication between two brains is the only real qualification here, just as direct communication between two computers wired to each other is just as much networking as a wireless link. What's interesting is the transmissivity, not the medium.

[The E]

Thank you Battuta for purposefully misunderstanding the point. If you can establish a connection between two minds, the actual implementation is just a matter of bandwidth, and where to get the most of it.

In this case, you have two brains that share A LOT of the basic infrastructure, if you will. It's like two virtualized servers running on one physical computer that communicate via TCP/IP.

Disregard, my reading comprehension sucks.

[General Battuta]

But how could I purposefully misunderstand the point when I already made that exact point?  

Of course there's a possibility that they have developed special network architecture from birth which could not be easily replicated in two adult brains.

I'd still call it telepathy, though. It's just not gonna hit the mass market for an unmodified human.

pssh nvm

[The E]

Sorry, I misread. Carry on.

[iamzack]

Well, if schizophrenia can exist, I'd say that was evidence that it was possible, and I mean true schizophrenia, two seperate personalities in the same mind, not the more common version of someone trying to escape into an alternate personality. It shows the Wetware can, in certain cases, keep two completely different perspectives in the same unit (the mind).

I agree with the 'E' that it's not Telepathy, more like 'Networking', or possibly 'User Accounts'

That's not schizophrenia, that's dissociative identity disorder.

[Kosh]

The Corps is mother, the Corps is father.

[Titan]

That logo is so familiar, what is it?

[The E]

Watch more Babylon 5, kthnx

[Bearstrike]

Cooool.  If it turns out they are telepathic (or whatever we collectively decide to deem it)  then I see a ****storm down the line with regards to bioethics groups and laws getting in the way of SCIENCE and figuring out how to recreate/emulate it.

[watsisname]

> implying telepathy is a desirable thing in humans.

NO RIVER I DON'T WANT YOU READING MY THOUGHTS, GORRAMIT.

[NGTM-1R]

I'll stick to simple thought transmission as a definition of telepathy, rather than complete annihilation of ability to have individual experiences. (And possibly ability to have individual memory?)

[S-99]

Telepathy. When it comes in it's wireless form is when i'll worry about it. When wireless telepathy comes into play, the only thing i want is to not be a transceiver or a receiver...if that's possible.

The great equalizer for telepathics would be the person whose thoughts they can't hear.