Can a digital reality be jacked directly into your brain?

PLUS: More of WIRED's best longreads from this week.

View this email in your browser  |  Manage newsletter subscriptions  11.28.21 What would it take to build a world in someone else's brain? And not just a world, but "a simulation indistinguishable from reality"? That's the question Adam Rogers asks in his latest feature for WIRED. "The brain is salty glop that turns sensory information into mind," he writes. "You ought to be able to harness that ability." Rogers' question takes him to the salty-gloppy frontier of brain-computer interfaces, where soccer balls have eyes and transgenic mice smell odors that don't really exist. "The idea of uploading a synthetic experience into a mind has been a load-bearing member in science fiction for at least 75 years," he writes. So how long before we have data ports in the napes of our necks? Anthony Lydgate | Senior Editor, WIRED   SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE    Can a Digital Reality Be Jacked Directly Into Your Brain? BY ADAM ROGERS | 10-MINUTE READ The idea of a synthetic experience uploaded to the mind has been a sci-fi fantasy forever. New brain-computer interfaces are making it nonfiction—very slowly.     SPOILER ALERT: Spoiler Alerts Are Making Us All Stupid BY JASON KEHE | 4-MINUTE READ If you think they're protecting the experience of experiencing art, you're more deluded than you know.     It's Time to Fear the Fungi BY ROSE EVELETH | 6-MINUTE READ Climate change could threaten humans' protection from fungal infections. It's time to fear the fungi.     What Are You Going to Tweet After You Die? BY C. BRANDON OGBUNU | 7-MINUTE READ The artful death announcements of Chadwick Boseman and MF DOOM show us how the way we die online can help the living grieve.     The Future of Digital Assistants Is Queer BY SALOMÉ GÓMEZ-UPEGUI | 5-MINUTE READ AI assistants continue to reinforce sexist stereotypes, but queering these devices could help reimagine their relationship to gender altogether.     Now Isn't the Time to Give Users Control of Their Data BY SANDRA MATZ | 4-MINUTE READ Until the collection of data is regulated, having power over your own information is more of a nightmarish responsibility than an appealing right. GET WIRED Cyber Week Pre-Sale: Get WIRED for just $10 $5. Get the print edition and exclusive subscriber-only content. You can't see into the future, but you can subscribe to WIRED. Subscribe now.         Have questions or comments? Reply to this email.   This e-mail was sent to you by WIRED. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, wired@newsletters.wired.com, to your address book.   View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe or manage your newsletter subscriptions