What if everyone could hear your thoughts?
Everyone around you can hear what you’re thinking. Offices go silent, and first dates get very short.
The morning bus. Everyone is looking at the floor.
< 0.1%chance it
ever happens
< 0.1%chance this ever happens
Could it actually happen?
Brain scanners have made real progress. In 2023, researchers in Texas used an MRI machine to turn brain activity into rough summaries of stories a person was listening to. But it took around 16 hours of training for each person, a machine that fills a room, and the person’s full cooperation. Hearing a stranger’s thoughts on a bus isn’t on the horizon.
Day 1
On the morning bus, people stare at the floor. A man gets off three stops early because the woman next to him heard exactly what he thought of her coat.
By the evening, restaurants are half empty. Sitting across a small table from someone has become a risk.
The first month
Offices build small rooms with thick walls so people can think in private. Dates move outdoors, where a passing thought has some distance to fade. Some friendships end within days.
The ones that last tend to be between people who were already honest with each other. They have far less to lose.
Year 10
Kids who grew up with it have a trick: when they want privacy, they hum a song loudly in their heads until it drowns everything else out.
People stand a little further apart on the pavement, and the most popular holidays are remote cabins, alone.
Who wins
- Blunt peopleNothing they think is worse than what they already say.
- Honest couplesThe argument they’d have had in five years happens in the first week, and then it’s over.
- MediatorsThey can tell each side what the other one is really thinking.
Who loses
- Open-plan officesYou can hear what the person at the next desk thinks of you.
- First datesMost end before the coffee arrives.
- PokerThe game is over, permanently.
- Anyone with a secretThe only way to keep one is never to think about it near anyone.
The catch
Most of what crosses our minds was never meant to be said. Hearing all of it wouldn’t make people more honest so much as more tired, and much more careful about where they sit.
Could you live like this?
100% said yes · 1 vote
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