🌎 Mind-controlled video gaming
And more… Welcome to EndUser, Freethink’s newest monthly column.
Hello Freethinkers,
Here at Freethink, we investigate the collision of technology, business, and society. But the colliding point of these three forces isn’t only in some lab or city or on Capitol Hill. It’s also in our homes. That’s why we’re excited to officially announce the launch of EndUser, a column that examines the human-focused stories about how technology is transforming the way we live our lives and what it means to experience this new paradigm.
This week, we’re featuring an EndUser piece I wrote in March about a Twitch streamer who plays video games using her brainwaves. Also on deck, Kristin Houser explains why robotaxis are the foreseeable future of autonomous vehicles in her latest installment of Future Explored.
Onward,
Kevin
ENDUSER
How one streamer learned to play video games with only her mind
Gamers love to overcome challenges. It’s the whole point of video games really, but sometimes the games aren’t challenging enough, and that’s when gamers have to get creative. Enter Twitch streamer Perrikaryal.
When she started streaming, she leaned into her psychology degree to analyze the news, debunk crank theories, and discuss media with unique psychological perspectives. Then one day she had a thought: Could she use an electroencephalogram to read her brainwaves and then turn those brainwaves into inputs for playing video games? Challenge accepted!
FUTURE EXPLORED
The robotaxis have arrived
At the 1939 New York World’s Fair, General Motors promised the estimated 45 million visitors of its Futurama event that autonomous cars would speed along superhighways by 1960. That year came and went, and while Americans got their highway system, they’re still waiting to own driverless cars.
Turns out, it’s a tough engineering problem — one that companies have spent billions to crack. But the industry may have found its starting point with robotaxis. Today, industry leader Waymo operates robotaxi services in Austin, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. This limited range gives developers more control over their vehicles, which should improve safety. It’ll take more time and data, however, before the wider public is ready to drive driverless.
IN THE KNOW
Solar generation is set to quadruple by 2030
by @DrSimEvans on X
2033. That’s the year when solar power will have overtaken nuclear, hydro, gas, and coal to become the world’s largest source of electricity, suggests recent data from the International Energy Agency. What’s driving the meteoric rise of clean power? In this fascinating thread on 21st-century energy trends, Carbon Brief editor Simon Evans gives an age-old answer: “It’s the economy, stupid.”
MORE ON THIS STORY
WORTH SHARING
The mountains where Neanderthals forever changed human genetics
Thara is a Neanderthal, and she’s exhausted. She’s walked nearly a thousand miles over three years, skirting great lakes and bushwhacking her way through wolf-infested forest. The only time her tribe stopped during those three years was to bury her cousin, who died while trying to catch a salmon. So, as she settles into a warm cave in what is now southern Turkey for the winter, she’s relieved.
Karn is a Homo sapiens, the third generation out of Africa. His people have been exploring northwards for most of his life, and Karn was resentfully starting to notice how much colder it was getting. So, when the Big Man says they will find a cave to shelter in for a while, Karn readily nods in agreement.
Over the weeks, Karn explores his cave, and Thara goes on a wander. Boy meets girl. Sapiens meets neanderthalensis. Karn and Thara swap flowers and grunt in mutual understanding. The winter might be long, but it’s not cold for Karn and Thara.
Read this week’s Strange Maps article to learn more.
Kevin Dickinson is a staff writer at Freethink.