BCIs and I/O Processes

Would we need an operating system for our own mind?

This is a clip about Miguel Nicolelis. In it, we see a primate manipulating a robotic arm with the brain functions that control the muscles of his actual arm. This is a clip (via Lifehacker) showing humans controlling computer interfaces mentally via a Brain Computer Interface, or BCI. These are amazing technological breakthroughs that have enormous implications. What most interests me, however, is how these BCI systems might further blur the boundary between the human and the virtual being; particularly through developing some sort of input on these devices that bypasses the visual.

Sure, it's great that the woman in the second video can search google, but does she need to go through the trouble of using a monitor and a cursor? If these interfaces were able to send information into the brain as well as receive information from it, the list of artists in her iTunes account could "appear" mentally, as one might perceive the colors of the rainbow. Right now, these systems consist primarily of reading neuro-data and translating that into either 3D muscle movement or 2D GUI location. This use of output simply mimics the actual controls that we possess over our environments (virtual or otherwise). Were there to be a more fluid system of input and output between brain and computer, the very nature of that control could change entirely: the song selected from the sonic spectrum in the user's mind could be "heard" internally; two people could silently use instant messenger while sitting next to each other on the bus. Applying this to the idea of cloud computing leads to a potential collective conscious. If the Google homepage could be internalized, one could think of a search term and receive information directly to the brain, rather than using a clunky monitor and trying to "think" the cursor on top of an oversized button.

This sounds like Sci-fi, but I think it's possible. The obstacle would be determining the "language" of neurological activity: the bridge between 1). cultural abstractions such as language itself, sensations of space and time (including memory), and communication and 2). the physicality of neurons, energy, and binary code. Nicolelis seems to have made some important steps in this direction, but it would be nice to interface with Wikipedia like we interface with memorized multiplication tables.

Sure, hard drive space would be an issue, too, but if you had neurological bluetooth, you could share data wirelessly to your cell phone and the internet, or to an external hard drive you could carry with you. Why not a thumb drive you stick in your ear?