> IAN: I wondered how could it be that 33 years
> after that article was written it still sounds
> like science fiction. I found it fascinating
> because whenever the topic of remote mind
> control comes up, the routine reaction seems
> to be claims that it cannot be done, that it's
> crazy talk and then the next things mentioned
> are usually Elvis, UFOs, and Area 51 -- but
> not necessarily in that order. I guess that
> makes it all the more eerie when you uncover
> a 33 year old article where what I'm told by
> educated people cannot to be done today, was
> done routinely almost a half century ago. Do
> you realize how much all sciences have evolved
> since 1965? 65 was virtually the stone age; com-
> puters that fit in your hand then were 5000 lbs.
Yes, imagine the possibilities of advanced mind control technology. The mind boggles! Apart from the obvious World Domination stuff, there are many potentially useful and profitable commercial applications. For example: forget drugs and those primitive mind-machines with flashing lights; you could build a "mind helmet" that stimulates specific areas in the amygdala and hippocampus by means of microwaves (separate low-power beams set to converge in the area of choice), inducing "a variety of effects, including lust, pleasant sensations, elation, deep thoughtful concentration, odd feelings, super relaxation (an essential precursor for deep hypnosis), colored visions, and other responses."
Even a machine with just one setting, pleasure, would be an absolutely unbeatable product (and a very transhuman one too: now you control your own emotions). The stuff that dreamsare made of. Now of course follows the inevitable question: why hasn't this been done yet? Do only implants have this effect (even then there would be many possible applications), or are the results too varied to create a viable product around the concept of "outside" (microwave etc.) brain stimulation?
If Delgrado's work has simply been forgotten, then wouldn't it be time to put it to good use? The marketing possibilities of pure emotions should make any red-blooded capitalist salivate... ;-)