Imagine having the ability to turn on the television and change the channel without using a remote control. Or better yet, imagine navigating the internet and sending emails using just the power of your thoughts. Although it may sounds like something out of a science fiction movie, these ideas are becoming a reality. The brain-computer interface is the next technological achievement that blurs the line between science fiction and scientific reality.

“It’s not unusual for new technologies to first enter popular consciousness as toys. In the 1st century, Heron of Alexandria invented the aeolipile: a metal ball with curved nozzles sticking out of it, perched on stilts. With water in it, and flame beneath it, the resultant steam would make it spin, whiz, whiz, whiz. Such fun. Nobody understood they were looking at a steam engine. Hence, the Industrial Revolution didn’t start for another 1700 years.”