That's something I really want to know. I recently watched the Anime "Sword Art Online". A funny, little anime about a game, where people wear a helmet called "NerveGear", and when you enter the MMO, you smell, taste, feel, see, hear like in the real world. That is what science called BCI. Brain Computer Interface.

Now on the one hand, this sounds like a gamers dream. Enter a virtual world with all senses.

But then: would you use it?

It really frightens the shit out of me. We all know, any communication technology has be used two-sided. If you attach a computer to your brain, some company might as well program your brain. Such things are already researched. Or they could read out private information from your brain. Look how Facebook and Amazon know so much about us. If you regularly buy all you want on Amazon and post actively on Facebook these two companies know a crapload about you. Now imagine some companies of the future offer you cheap goods if you allow access to your brain info.

You could sell experiences from your RL as "experience game". You upload any experience in your life from your brain to the "NewInternet" and people pay you for re-living something you experienced. Like your team won when you played Soccer. Or how you hiked on a mountain. Or how you had wonderful sex.

And of course, people could become VERY addict to this virtual reality. Maybe humanity would decide virtual life is better and voluntarily live inside a Matrix? Letting Robots care for the bodily needs. BCI and constant connection of the Brain to a HyperMind collective could replace the internet. Even today with Smartphones people are potentially connected to the internet everywhere. And if you don't have a cell phone today, you have a difficult time, and people give you odd looks. So imagine it could work just as pressure to have a BCI and be connected with your brain to the Brain-Internet.

Sometimes this technology development spooks me. You say, that is all fictional? Well, today people have a much lesser feeling for "privacy" than people in the past. See Facebook asf. So apparently privacy is a cultural matter, not an absolute. In ancient Rome, people sat together and shat with a dozen others while chatting, which is rather unthinable to us.

Thoughts? How you feel about this idea? Would you connect or boycott this?

I would use it. can wait for the day we can shutoff out sences and use a tool to  put our brain into  a vitural world , we see 3d, we feel 3d,we think we walk ,eat,fight and havea  good time relaxing during the darkages copping of heads whit knowing it all aint real still.

as for privacy .. meh ..just like freedom.. its all nice to have but eh.. all come and go,  like games things change and have their moments.  RL jsut takes longer to chance but eventualy it will again , in 1000 years we could all eb tribe based freedom lovers or  imperail cousin lovers like the old roman empire only a bit more techy and spaceshipy..  life is weird like that..

I would use it and be terrified of it, not so much for privacy or the fact my brain can be scrambled or something...but mainly a fear I would become hopelessly addicted to it. Total immersion in a fantastic world where we can be more than what we are is just scary addictive I bet lol.

Oh god the trolling would be horrendous in those games too, teabagging would go into a whole new realm of terrible lol.

I also think given that technology more often than not we would even be hooked into it for work purposes like a virtual commute. I can definitely see this kind of tech becoming transformative of our species and society...scary/awesome part is we may be there sooner than later. I know I want this tech to be available and widely available when I am older so I can ditch the old man body and feel young again in a virtual world.

That sort of technology is not that far off. OCZ has produced a neural interface for gaming, scientists have tied a electronic eye into the optic nerve to help a blind person see. 

It would definately add a measure of immersion to a role playing game, that is for sure. My question is how many of those guys that make female characters would continue to do so.

Yes, that would be something scary... I think I would still do it but maybe I would first try to befriend a group of people that are new users and see if they are affected in any way, maybe even do some research, but definitely, I think I couldn't live with myself if I didn't at least tried it out.

Same on the scared side. My brain is the best part about me. I've spent a lot of time dumping useless trivia into it and the songs I've remade with disgusting words in them, off the chart.

No chance I let someone mess with my brain unless we are talking about a deathbed need.

On the other side, if I ever lose an arm, I'd get a mechanical one and program the heck out of it. Just a nono for me on the brain.

Those who have brainstormed the future of MMO have stated the next real revolution (in this genre) will come either enhanced AI and how the player interacts with the world.

I posted this earlier and it didnt garner any response.  Technology is projected to have these advancements within our lifetime.  Source:  Ray Kurzweil's predictions.

You have to think though, once a game reaches a point of that realism......when it truly elicits (artificially) human emotions;  It will then cease to be a game and become a true escape from reality.  It scares me as well TBH.  People thought vanilla WoW was addicting and life disturbing.....it wil not hold a candle to what is coming.

I suggest watching the movie "Strange Days."  It has many of the same themes, however in a different type of movie.

Wouldn't want someone cutting open my head, much less placing any kind of chip/piece of hardware in it.

It'd be fascinating if one day we could, but I imagine such a procedure would have a lot of risks, which I would probably be to scared to take for the sake of entertainment.

while it sounds cool and id be tempted... im kinda going to have to say no.  last thing i want is the Y2K bug inside my brain ROFL or one of those nasty trojan worms :P

if you are directly hooking your brain up to a pc that allows that sort of ability surely catching an actual virus would be too...if you want to tinhat it as well.. you would have to expect some sort of mind control crap going on too.... 

praise it to skynet our lord and master :O

I don't remember where I've read it the first time, but I think an inventor once said if virtual worlds became a reality then that would be the extinction of the human race.

I doubt a lot of people would boycot it really. Think about it, you'd be able to live and experience any fantasy or obsession you have no matter how crazy, depraved, loony or what not.

Hell think about it, if you could just log in and be Darth Vader or Spiderman or Superman what reason you'd have not to go for it?

After that it would just be a slow decline. After all the only reason you'd had to go out is to just work just enough to be able to pay for that thing. After all why would you not want to? Everything you could possibly imagine would be in there.

2-way connection between my brain and the interwebz? No way in hell. Well, unless by some magic the good guys in net/computer security suddenly got a lightyear ahead of the bad guys permanently (which won't ever happen). 

Now, a 1-way connection as in replacing the mouse, keyboard and whatnot controllers with a direct brain interface? Would definitely give it a try if it didn't cost too much or require surgery.

Unfortunately, I'll probably be dead of old age before such tech becomes commercially viable for the masses despite some individual working experiments recently.