"Animal brains connected up to make mind-melded computer"

"Bypassing language"

"This is incredible," says Andrea Stocco at the University of Washington in Seattle... Things could get even more interesting once we are able to connect human brains.

"Once brains are connected, applications become just a matter of what different animals can do," says Stocco. All anyone can probably ask of a monkey is to control movement, but we can expect much more from human minds, he says.

A device that allows information transfer between brains could, in theory, allow us to do away with language – which plays the role of a "cumbersome and difficult-to-manage symbolic code", Stocco says.

The idea of not having to listen to politicians would improve the quality of life tremendously ;)

"I could send thoughts from my brain to your brain in a way not represented by sounds or words," says Andrew Jackson at Newcastle University, UK. "You could envisage a world where if I wanted to say 'let's go to the pub', I could send that thought to your brain," he says. "Although I don't know if anyone would want that. I would rather link my brain to Wikipedia."

On the other hand, we would need robust blocking mechanisms.