Where Neuroscience is Making the Impossible, Possible

Where Neuroscience is Making the Impossible, Possible

Glimpse a revolutionary future enabled by neuroscience

Originally Published In Psychology Today

Recently, while preparing to deliver a TED talk—”What Will Be the Next Big Scientific Breakthrough?”—I thought a lot about the impossible.

Once, human flight was impossible. Instant communication anywhere, anytime was impossible. Leaving Earth was impossible. Seeing farther than the naked eye was impossible. Scientific revolutions have turned a long list of impossibilities into everyday realities. And science is far from finished.

Nowhere is this more true than with neuroscience.

Thanks to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) we can already see living brains think, we can help relieve Parkinson’s tremors with the flip of a switch via brain implants, and we can beam thoughts instantly across the planet from one person to another via sensitive scalp probes and superconducting brain stimulators.

Where is neuroscience poised to elevate the art of the possible and change our lives next? Following are three of the most tantalizing possibilities.

© Dr. Eric Haseltine