Think lovely thoughts - or else

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat Doug Levy

This means that people who do not have the ability to move at all can now communicate with the outside world. It may be a laborious process, but even if the operator can only relate one letter at a time, if he's been shut off from the world around him, it's tantamount to a miracle.

The news is also pretty exciting for all the kids out there, even if they really aren't concerned with the writing abilities of quadriplegics. It's only logical that if they can make a communication program that works on thought alone, it can't be long before the first mind-driven video games hit the market. Just think, pretty soon you won't even have to move your hands while you sit on your couch and stare at the screen.

But what else does it mean?

I see a far more sinister side to this new development. It isn't hard to look ahead a bit - if we're able to recognize the significance of certain brainwave patterns to the degree where they take on specific meanings, how long will it be before we have the ability to read people's minds completely, simply by attaching a couple of electrodes to the side of their head?

A routine EEG could become far more than routine if it turns out our patient is actually embezzling money from the bank he works at. Lie detector tests will become obsolete, along with the questioning process itself. The police won't have to put you in a little room and subject you to a barrage of intimidating queries to find out if you've committed a crime anymore. They'll just read your mind and be done with it. And just think, we won't even need the police force we have now. Just give everyone a routine scan from time to time to see if they've committed any crimes and that's that. Sorry, detectives.

Lawyers will also become virtually unnecessary in both criminal and civil suits, as will juries, for the most part. After all, you might be able to say you're not guilty, but it's a lot harder to think it. No one will miss jury duty, I'm sure, but the backlash for the law community could bring on economic crisis.

Job interviews will no longer require a single spoken word. Potential employers can stop giving drug tests, too. They'll know everything they need to about you without any physical evidence at all. And dating -Êwell, you can skip all that getting to know you stuff and get the kind of first impression you can only imagine right now.

Eventually the time will come where we won't even need to connect to any kind of device to read minds. We'll all have transmitter implants in our heads from birth. We won't have to talk at all any more. Secrets will be a thing of the past. Mental blocks will no longer be targets for psychiatrists to remove, but deliberately constructed defense barriers people will struggle to erect. Technology will have to be strictly regulated, and thought-muting devices will become the hottest commodity. Chaos will most likely reign.

But on the bright side, at least no one will ever have to hear that most annoying of all questions ever again: "So what are you thinking?"

Wildlife Coordinator Doug Levy has just completed his MFA manuscript and, as a result, has been left without a coherent thought in his head. He can be reached at dlevy@u.arizona.edu.