Science fiction claimed that we would no longer move in an actual environment. Along came Virtual Reality (VR), made that thought a science fact, and blew everyone away !!!

In Science fiction, people connected to virtual worlds not with their hands or eyes but with their minds - they jack in. But now for the (frightening ??) truth. This is already possible!

Scientists are building the interface of science fiction: A device, where with a set of electrodes on your forehead, you can jack into the computer and then move around virtual environments simply by thinking. The US Military are already training pilots to fly simulators using their thoughts!

Overwhelmed?... check this out! There are now computers, which can literally "record" human thought and "play" them back. At Scripps Institute, the latest brain-mapping system MEG reads the electrical activity of the brain, recording fleeting thoughts as they happen. Scientists have tried an experiment where they actually amplified these brainwaves and then, using an electromagnet, inserted those brainwaves into the human head. They have also built a device, called a neurophone, which allows sound information to be transmitted by using electrodes (which go on the temples) directly into the brain. They believe that this technique could be used to simulate other senses, sight, smell, touch, to give a virtual experience which will be completely indistinguishable from real.

Such a technology points us to an astonishing possibility: You could share someone else's experiences. You can be who you want to be, go where you want to go, do what you want to do, wherever you may be, and all this just by thinking!

But, is there technology with ways to transfer the information into the experience of another person? The answer is (as you must have anticipated) an unbelievable YES!!

The possibilities are endless. Now, you could be deaf, dumb or blind... and yet have sound, speech and sight! In 1974, a professor implanted an electrode array into the skull of a blind patient. The aim was to stimulate the brain directly to create artificial sight. The experiment was a sucess: the patient was able to distinguish crude patterns. Now, they have built a chip with 100 tiny electrodes on it. Implanted in a patient's brain, each electrode should produce a point of light(a phosphene). Its been demonstrated that 625 phosphenes will give a useful visual function to a previously completely blind patient. Direct brain stimulation can be used to give other artificial sensations. Artificial hearing is already a reality, brain stem implants connected to the nervous system give a form of hearing to deaf people.