The combination of artificial intelligence, microelectronics and brain research is blurring the line between human being and intelligent machine. Assistive or therapeutic technologies will be the pioneering applications; then, market demand will drive more and more sophisticated uses outside of medicine.
Mapping the brain and learning how to target electrical pulses to specific regions could transfer knowledge between minds or infuse memories into people who never had the recalled experience.
The union of bioscience and technology is shifting that prospect out of the realm of fantasy and onto an engineering timeline.