Why didn't we evolve telepathy?

[warpstorm]

Do the computers need to learn whole new algorithms for each user?

In all of these that I'm aware of, the user adapts to the computer not vice versa. You could make a system that has some give and take by allowing the computer system to use NNs in it interface, for example.

 

[betazed]

<edit: Betazed, can we assume that our definition of telepathy is any form of communication that does not require a clear line of sight, or require us to be immersed in some medium like air or water?>

That seems to be a reasonable definition. Just add the phrase, 'without any external devices which is not part of our body'. Otherwise communication using a motorola two way radio would be telepathy.

 

[The Last Conformist]

(In case someone still hasn't got it; my piece about communication via eye gestures was not intended to say that this amounts to "telepathy" in any reasonable sense of the word.)

I don't think it matters one bit if brains could immediately understand one another (I'd hazard they'd be able to adapt to achieve a mutual understanding if not - cf electric prosthetics, were the brain learns to control the artificial hand despite that its reactions to nerve signals is not like that of a natural hand; human brains have considerable plasticity), since I cannot see any point in transmitting "brain states" in toto instead of simply sending some suitably coded stream of relevant information.

 

[The Last Conformist]

That seems to be a reasonable definition. Just add the phrase, 'without any external devices which is not part of our body'. Otherwise communication using a motorola two way radio would be telepathy.

I suppose we also ought disallow interchange of any considerable amounts of matter, or we could telepathize by spitting at one another!

 

[Stapel]

So why didn't it happen? Any thoughts?

In contrary to popular believe, Evolution has no goals. Evolution simply goes in a random direction. Whatever new form has a chance to survive, might survive, which usually happens to be a survivable AND THUS PRACTICAL lifeform.

Appearently telepathy has not been such a random direction yet.

 

[Pirate]

In contrary to popular believe, Evolution has no goals. Evolution simply goes in a random direction. Whatever new form has a chance to survive, might survive, which usually happens to be a survivable AND THUS PRACTICAL lifeform.

Appearently telepathy has not been such a random direction yet.

I think Betazed's question was meant to ask if there is any reason that it wouldn't be feasible ever. Your statement might be taken to mean "It's totally possible, we just haven't done it yet" which is totally different than saying "we can't ever evolve it because it would require these impossible mechanisms..."

One could ask why a tree that grew socket wrenches hasn't evolved yet. I'm sure we could come up with many more specific reasons for it than "it just hasn't mutated that way yet."

 

[Perfection]

Well, just another question is would telepathy actually be beneficial to the species? Mental disorders could spread like disease and in dense areas it sure would be a trick. Imagine living in manhattan or Tokyo and having to listen to the toughts of millions.

 

[The Last Conformist]

@Perf: There's no reason to assume that telepathy of the sort envisioned by the OP would be a better vector for the spread of psychic disorders than is speech.

The Tokyo/NYC issue doesn't turn up until you've got urbanization, which is a very recent development. Whether something is adaptive today has no bearing on whether it might've been selected for in the past.

 

[Immortal]

Well, just another question is would telepathy actually be beneficial to the species? Mental disorders could spread like disease and in dense areas it sure would be a trick. Imagine living in manhattan or Tokyo and having to listen to the toughts of millions.

Haven't you seen that episode of Voyager when those 4 borg are still linked to each other but not to the collective?

When its billions of voices, its all white-noise. But the screaming thoughts of a few drove them mad.

 

[Perfection]

@Perf: There's no reason to assume that telepathy of the sort envisioned by the OP would be a better vector for the spread of psychic disorders than is speech.

In that case yes, but then it's only a slight improvement to speech.

Haven't you seen that episode of Voyager when those 4 borg are still linked to each other but not to the collective?

When its billions of voices, its all white-noise. But the screaming thoughts of a few drove them mad.

As we all know crappy sci-fi knows everything.

 

[Jack the Ripper]

To evolve telepathy w/ so-called "radio signals", first many orgamisms would have to grow together sharing the same brain. Then after a freak accident, one such organism is severed from the communal brain. It finds that somehow a (previously) worthless mutation causing radio signals to be emitted from its brain is now useful, commuicates and reproduces fine, and evolves to "fine tune" its new ability.

Psh. Telepathy. Psh.

Why dont sound waves count? They're energy waves. Thats telepathy.

"The node of the briain that receives the signals is called the "ear", and the organ that emits is called the "voice box". With it, intelligent organisms can communicate even though there is a void in between them. There are drawbacks, though. Due to the intelligence of the species, any communication between two given organisms can be recieved by other nearby organisms, resulting in anything from no reaction at all to a violent conflict between communities. The signal also decreases in relation to the inverse square of a given distance, thus a louder signal is needed to communicate over wide distances. Depending on the species, an earthly orgainism can communicate through a gaseous medium, or a liquid medium.

As their intennigence incresed, the intelligent organisms of earth devised methods to amplify their emission of sound waves; using anything from hollow cones to electro- nically amplified sound waves. This allowed single organisms to communicate to many others at a time, and do so over larger distances. As thier technology grew, they employed electromagnitic waves (radio, hint hint ) to instantly communicate with other individuals around the globe; thus effectivly rendering themselves some kind of cyborg.

Their methods of receiving were enhanced as well. They used many of the same techniques to recieve as to send (evolving from hollow cones to electronic receivers), thus rendering themselves cyborgs.

Sonds like telepathy to me...

 

[kcwong]

Well, just another question is would telepathy actually be beneficial to the species? Mental disorders could spread like disease and in dense areas it sure would be a trick. Imagine living in manhattan or Tokyo and having to listen to the toughts of millions.

I don't think that'll be a problem...

Our ears and eyes also receive tons of information every second... do our concious mind receive them all? Nope, our brains have filtered out what we don't need or what we do not pay attention to.

Do we go insane just by hearing the ramblings of a mad man? Nope... not unless you're forced to hear it and nothing else for months non-stop.

I think the same would go for EM waves or telepathy.

 

[Perfection]

I don't think that'll be a problem...

Our ears and eyes also receive tons of information every second... do our concious mind receive them all? Nope, our brains have filtered out what we don't need or what we do not pay attention to.

Do we go insane just by hearing the ramblings of a mad man? Nope... not unless you're forced to hear it and nothing else for months non-stop.

I think the same would go for EM waves or telepathy.

Well, I was refering to one where brain access is far greater then simple speech.

 

[stratego]

Maybe we HAVE, or it's evolving, but it's too weak for the average person to use it. I tell people that I have telepathic powers and they just look at me like I'm crazy.

 

[The Last Conformist]

In that case yes, but then it's only a slight improvement to speech.

Why should anything more be selected for?

 

[carlosMM]

So why didn't it happen? Any thoughts?

An electromagnetic field strong enough to leave the skull and enter another would totaly disrupt the functions of the brain it enamates from, I guess.

for the rest - see the first reply by TLC.

 

[aneeshm]

On a related note , I had read a chapter in a book about sensory perception and similar phenomenon . It said that there are some sea animls capable of sensing the finest of magnetic fields . If that ogran was taken out , and the part of the animal's brain that recieved its signals also taken out , and the organ implanted in a human finger , with an extra nerve leading to that part of our brain where the animal's brain-part was implanted , then we'd have a magnetic-field sensitive human .

 

[Stapel]

I think Betazed's question was meant to ask if there is any reason that it wouldn't be feasible ever. Your statement might be taken to mean "It's totally possible, we just haven't done it yet" which is totally different than saying "we can't ever evolve it because it would require these impossible mechanisms..."

It's not what I meant. I only meant to say evolution is not a steered process. It's a random process. I have no clue about the possible directions we might evolve.

 

[The Last Conformist]

It's not what I meant. I only meant to say evolution is not a steered process. It's a random process. I have no clue about the possible directions we might evolve.

Yes we have. Our current constitution sets pretty harsh limits for what kind of further courses are realistic.

 

[carlosMM]

It's not what I meant. I only meant to say evolution is not a steered process. It's a random process. I have no clue about the possible directions we might evolve.

Well, there's limits - what we have limits what we can evolve quickly and what we can practically NOT evolve.