Maybe in 50 years workers will be forced to impant this thing. Imagine your boss screaming at you literally in your brain because neuralink is telling him you feel lazy!

What can be abused will be abused!

Nah. I don't buy it. I don't think that future will ever come to pass in any democratic country, even a sham democracy like the US. The evil forces haven't even managed to get an encryption-backdoor law passed, and most policymakers don't even understand that issue.

What you're describing is so far beyond any social issue of today in terms of egregious and horrifying threats to society that it would just get voted out of existence so hard you'd barely know it was ever a risk.

Nobody will ever let thought intrusion come to pass.

On the flip side, everyone is now walking around with an internet connected camera, microphone, and location tracker in their pocket. Most of us are livestreaming their location to cloud services.

I don't think this will come to pass as a mandate from on high, but it might come to pass as a practical device that everyone needs to function in modern society.

Most tech companies are in-line with some form of abuse. Whether it's creating campaigns against reasonable salary increases to installing highly intuitive applications to track and monitor your activity as an employee.

More simply put, things we'd give people felonies for tech companies (and others) get a pass.

I could believe this dystopian future, especially as political forces continue to form stern camps whose only substantive difference is an opposing view to the other.

> Nobody will ever let thought intrusion come to pass.

Human rights will take steps backwards if it's necessary to keep an economic advantage.

If thought intrusion has any productivity value, a less scrupulous nations will take that advantage, and deregulation by more scrupulous nations will be re-framed as gaining necessary competitive advantage, and will be demanded by unemployed citizens and business minds alike.

we already have cameras everywhere, you cant participate in society without signing up for and along with someone else massive system of bullshit. We cant even review utility bills without installing an app or visiting a website and starting an account. 'That future' we are in the middle of it.

> The evil forces haven't even managed to get an encryption-backdoor law passed

They've managed to do a few other pretty evil things recently, though. And they're going to keep trying until they get it through. They only have to win once, and then no government is going to voluntarily give up the extra power and control.

Unless they don't know it's coming to pass :o

Or you're in an authoritarian regime where not having an implant may result in longer lines, less financing options, no plane access, harder train access, and direct pressure on/from friends.

I'm not worried about those things happening in Canada tomorrow though.

I find it strange that you point out that policy makers do not comprehend these concepts, yet believe it will be voted out.

They are just as likely to create policies to the benefit of their wallet, especially when they do not comprehend a topic.

I firmly believe that new technology will always empower more positive change than negative.

I would love to have some sort of cybernetic implant, but I suspect mature commercial applications will only be developed after my lifetime

Even if that’s the case (it’s not necessary at all), net change is a terrible metric, because the negatives are externalized often onto those that are already oppressed/marginalized

No I mean in a Pareto efficiency sense.

  new technology will always empower more positive change than negative.

Empower, yes. Implement, not necessarily.

Well, unlike sci-fi universes, this universe has sci-fi books so people are adequately terrified of that possibility¹. I don't believe this will come to pass.

¹ We are https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GenreSavvy

Imagine being in Gitmo and having one of these implanted to both administer pain, and tell your handlers if you're still feeling like hiding something.

Why would your boss scream at you, when he could just make you feel like working and you'd think it was your own idea?

Maybe being required to use it is a compromise the people get in exchange for having free will at work. 2050's labor rights!

You already have a cellphone tho

Its probably because humans in general are not capable of generating good predictions at this.