Mind-Machine Interface is here!

[Zeiter]

The creators of the atmospherics and backstory stuff of SMAC were visionaries.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19368036/

New technology lets mind move toy train
Scientists set to develop brain-controlled TV remote

HATOYAMA, Japan - Forget the clicker: A new technology in Japan could let you control electronic devices without lifting a finger simply by reading brain activity.

The "brain-machine interface" developed by Hitachi Inc. analyzes slight changes in the brain's blood flow and translates brain motion into electric signals.

[More at link}

[Slade Wilson]

As if MMI was unknown at the time of the games creation. Or anything else in the game.

[Zeiter]

Well, the concepts might have been there, but not anyone could have predicted the feasibility or applications of such concepts. I think the SMAC creators were ahead of the pack on a number of such accounts.

Edit: as a side note, wouldn't it be a great way to play SMAC if you could execute all of the commands remotely with your mind while just looking at the screen...or even better, not have a screen at all, but just have the information fed directly to your brain and processed all internally...you could fly through some games like that.

[Slade Wilson]

Why not a full holodeck from startrek? Thats always been my dream for a game :drool:

But realisticly, ive been wanting a MMI control for shooter games

[Seleuceia]

Many things in SMAC are actual industrial and scientific terms/ideas/conceptions...there are articles written about "Space Elevators", "Monopole Magnets", and the like. Industrial automation has been around for quite a while, and even some high-minded people have conceptualized a "living refinery" using orbital facilities and moon bases...

[Darrell01]

Yes, things are concepts and such. What I get from it is that the faction can now implement whatever technology they have researched. When people land, they know about airplanes and such from the datalinks, but they do not have the industrial wherewithall to produce a battleship or an effective power source for the device. This can more easily be seen with a jet fighter.

[timsup2nothin]

Originally posted by Darrell01
Yes, things are concepts and such. What I get from it is that the faction can now implement whatever technology they have researched. When people land, they know about airplanes and such from the datalinks, but they do not have the industrial wherewithall to produce a battleship or an effective power source for the device. This can more easily be seen with a jet fighter.

The strange part (which can't really be changed for playability reasons) is that the colonists on their inhospitable planet swarming with mindworms can immediately duplicate the most astounding feat of earth technology...the colony pod. I am always amused that the base that lacks the basic industry required to build a boat or a dune buggy can build a transport shell with all the agriponics and oxygen systems to support 1000 settlers.

[Darrell01]

Good point timsup2nothin. My guess is that the colony pods on the ship that had whatever amount of colony pods on it when it took off from earth was given the ability to produce more colony pods once it established a base. Kind of like the idea behind self replicating nano-machines, except its done human sized on an alien landscape instead of a petri dish.

[Xian]

The assumption in the game fiction is that leaving earth the UN packed the Unity with an abundance of resources and tools for setting up at least one new colony.

Remember that Alpha Centauri picks up from about 100+ years from *now* - that implies at least 50 years of technological development, not to mention planning and preparation.

[binTravkin]

Well this is not MMI actually, this is rather a "Guess what I just thought" interface with little possibilities apart from single dimension (weaker-stronger).
Of course it's a step forward, but I think the tech is inferior to inserting electrods in your sight centers to feed imaging from a camera - I read in that way blind people can already be made to see distorted figures in b&w.

Remember, we need Neural Grafting first.

And we don't even have Secrets Of The Human Brain yet!! (not that I know of).