Isn't the human race "interesting?"
What' the most inhumane creature? Humans.

yes. . even if I discovered the cure for cancer, the
distribution of it could start ww3. . beware! -- j
.

Enyway
It's the application of the knowledge that must be cautionary. Every new technology is a two edged sword. No matter how beneficial a new breakthrough might be, it is most important that the possibility of negative application be made aware of as the positive.

Hello, H,
I could not agree with you more. Thank you.

Someone mentioned science fiction and one of the great classic movies of machine-implemented mind “reaching.” I'll throw in something from my Sci-fi paperback collection. A 1962 anthology from Galaxy Publishing contains five short novels, one of which is Delay in Transit by F. L. Wallace.
The main character, Cassal, had what we would now call a sentient AI personal assistant chip surgically implanted behind his ear. His AI “instrument” was named Dimanche, French for Sunday, likely an homage to Robinson Crusoe’s assistant, Friday. Cassal talked to Dimanche by mentally thinking in speech, which Dimance could “hear” as nervous system and physiological data and “talk” in turn as minute pressures conducted to Cassal’s ear. Their “subvocalized conversation” was inaudible to other people.
The author (Wallace) used the term “subvocalization” with no explanation, but it’s meaning was instantly obvious from the context. I have never heard any terminology for the concept even close in suitability until “cryptospeak”, which I just coined while typing this sentence. Thank me, Steve. I’m welcome.

current reality -- yes. . but this is a new field. -- j
.

Could put foreign language teachers out of business.

When the government decided that you are against them in some way, they connect you to a debriefing machine and arrest you for thinking things that are against them....

Turn my thoughts into speech?
No, thank you! Stay out of my head. I realize that this would be a therapeutic, voluntary procedure, but how long will it be before it becomes an interrogation device?
I want my thoughts kept private until I decide to speak them. This is just a step or two away from being a step too far.

I think this is a pipe dream. We have so little knowledge on how our brains work to actually translate information into knowledge and vice versa. And part of that problem is that my storage system will be different from every other brain throughout the history of brains. So being able to translate brain cells firing into specific sort of speech seems beyond the scope of reality.

Human thought can at times be very naughty.
Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, know what I mean?
Not to mention just wanting to punch any certain someones in the face or way worse.
You'd think one would have to have quite the disciplined Star Trek space alien Vulcan's humanoid mind to subdue all the embarrassing riffraff.
(That second line is stolen from a Monty Python skit).

Whenever I see this subject come up, I can't help but remember the fate of the Krell in the Forbidden Planet movie (still one of my all time favorites). We haven't been terribly prepared for the societal changes brought on by the ever-expanding capabilities of cell phones. Long established social conventions of communication are being blown away. Are we really prepared for what comes next?

It is definitely coming. Already working for some basic functions. They even have toys with the features.

Maybe a new way to communicate with Alexa.

Heck...I could use it in the shower where I do my best writing in my mind... only to forget or lose most of it once I get down to my office...towel in tow...sorry, laughing...to much info, I know.

But seriously...how this could be used against us is what scares me....I wonder if the developers have thought of that.

That's the fun thing about reality, it's not subjective. Facts, determined and processed with rational reasoning, become knowledge of reality, then integrated with the store of knowledge of reality and they are the same for everyone.

To be determined by the recipient.

All factual and rational knowledge...

New technology is always circumspect. We cannot approve or disapprove anything. I cannot repeat it enough. ALL KNOWLEDGE IS LEARNING, AND THEREFOR GOOD.