Hearing Thoughts

According to certain predictors, one day humans may transform to communicate exclusively by telepathy—sending thought-to-thought without speech. Whether or not you believe that will be possible, stop for a moment and consider what having your thoughts open to everyone would mean. Could you face someone you dislike, establish eye contact, and think those unkind jokes, criticisms and insults you like to imagine saying? No more masks—even for ICE. A physical mask would be pointless because your thoughts would be hanging out like dirty laundry. No more masks, period. No amount of deceptive skill could rescue you.

How would human nature change, or would it? Like children parents hush for being too blunt, we would all be accountable for our thoughts. Would you still dare to lie, knowing everyone would hear you planning it? One of the problems with lying is you must remember what you’ve said over time. Interrogators wouldn’t need to keep asking the same questions over and over to see if the answer changed. They’d know the answer was invented as they might with a lie detector. They’d eventually hear your stressful self-talk rehearsing the details of the deceit.

If you felt cocky enough to indulge in name calling, you’d have to deal with the consequences. If you wanted to pretend to be tolerant, you couldn’t. Your prejudices would be obvious as would your nefarious strategies. No more luring innocents into sex trafficking with smooth talk. No more sucking-up to gain favor from a superior or a rich relative. No more, “I love you, Babe,” to gain access to sexual favors. No more using people. Your true intention would be in your thoughts. Your cover would be blown by your denigrating assumption that your listener had to be too stupid to spot your clever deception. Politicians, religious leaders, and entertainers would be forced to know what their constituents were thinking since they’d hear real reactions from their audiences. And their listeners would know what the speakers had in mind.

In school at any level, with telepathy you’d do no more repeating whatever the teacher/professor wanted to hear because parroting would ring hollow, as it should, if you could think it in the first place. (Hopefully, by then cyber communication would have fallen from fashion because writing would offer AI-edited modes of expression behind which to cower.) Hiding lack of face-to-face comprehension or agreement would be far more difficult. Poker would be a useless activity for any but the most disciplined thinkers… as would vanity. You couldn’t admire yourself without revealing your over-inflated ego to others. Superficial competition would show its true nature.

On the other hand, affection could be more widespread. People you admire would hear your appreciation. You could give up being shy about giving compliments or expressing love. In fact, insecure people would be nudged into sharing their ideas that they would’ve swallowed in less honest times. The ideas might simply bubble out on the breath of enthusiasm. Mental health therapy would be more direct and probably more effective. A truer sense of community might be unavoidable.

In the film DISCLOSURE DAY, when she confronts someone face-to-face, the lead character played by Emily Blunt can see the private person beneath the official uniform with their most pressing emotional thoughts. She can see those they’ve loved, perhaps lost. She can’t help but empathize with their personal histories. Emotional telepathy would inspire greater love, tears and smiles—greater empathy. Would hearing each other’s thoughts be like sharing their souls? Would we feel a more developed sense of unity? Have we buried too deeply our concern for what others are experiencing in order to serve our own selfish goals? Are we wasting the potentials of humanity and the treasures of living on this earth? Telepathy may sound crazy, but would it be?