Project website: http://telepath.boxmode.io.
So I had a number of ideas when facing this assignment. First all I could thought of was pretty dark things (thanks to the cyberpunk novels all over the internet, and black mirror, probably). And when I thought of dark I thought of politics, which I absolutely detest, yet I thought maybe I could invent an algorithm that could detect fake news, so people don’t have to hate politics that much. But then I encountered this problem of information privacy: to pinpoint a fake assert, be it deliberate slander or careless misspeak, one would ideally have to gather all information around the source, yet those information are usually scattered and illogically and quite randomly so. It would require an all-seeing eye to judge the truth and false of all information, and that’s supposed to be the job of god instead of an A.I. invented by some unimportant puny species on earth, so I quitted this idea.
So then I had to come up with another. I was having Arabic course, and was struggling with getting off bed to do the homework. So I thought, why not invent something to emancipate me from this calamity? And the idea of making a translator is thus born. But people of my time are already working on developing a real-time translator, so that’s not nearly advance enough. What about emotions too? It is a big and core part of our existence yet humans have not yet any tools to evaluate it. If we have lie detectors, why can’t we detect other more intricate emotions? And if the neural signals can allow monkeys to play games, why can’t we decipher it so that we know emotions as well?
Then it was easier. I got further through this thought and realized that I was thinking about artificial telepathy. Well, why not? I do believe that telepathy is just a potential ability built inside all of us, when we feel each other’s joy and sorrow, but maybe A.I. can make the process more definable. Looking back, a lot of social injustice were caused by indifference and aloofness, while much kindness had spurred from compassion and empathy. The world is better for everyone if kindness and warmth is to be shared among us, and the pain of others acknowledged justly. There will be less careless attack among us if the pain it caused is well defined, less discrimination if the majority can know what being the minority feels like, and less souls choosing to travel afar from this planet if in their depth of sorrow light and joy is shared. I know myself that sometimes one fails to produce happiness by oneself, and must rely on the empathy and joyous spirit of others. To empath is kindness without discrimination and condescension. It is the most simple form of love that we are born with, and more would make it better.
Of course, every big technology has controversy and backset. What if instead of love and warmth, hate and pain is spread? What if our feeling gets hacked, and we get controlled by the baddies? But I think Telepath, if it ever comes real, would give us clearer boundaries and more choice. It is only an effective tool to share feelings, and as always it is up to us to decide what to give to the world, and expect the same to be given back to us. I hope Telepath to be designed not as an inserted device but a portable and detachable one, so that people can turn it off in case of emergency. And surely it is not to be turned on 24/7, for those with strong empathy when they were born may not even need it. People should always be aware what kind of feeling they are receiving or giving out, and I am sure there will be warning when the system detects a truly destructive one, and some twisted ones should even be banned. Of course there will still be darkness, as there always will be as long as we exist, but maybe we will feel more light because there are more tubes and tunnels for them to spread.
And there are a lot of good things that could come. People will care more about their mental health, now that they can inspect their emotion as something concrete as their physical body. We will have more clarity into the cause of mental diseases and how to treat them. We will respect each other more, and be conscious of how we are affecting each other. Liars and cons will have to find smarter ways to hide themselves. People will have an easier way to identify real kindness and friendship with manipulation and ill will. Those alike in mind are going to find each other sooner. Maybe we will even extend our kindness to those that are like us, only simpler: animals and plants. Maybe we will find a reason to protect them as we protect our own.