Earlier this year, at the annual meeting of the World Future Society, futurist Jose Cordeiro sparked controversy with his claim that speech will soon be outdated. Cordeiro, founder of the organization’s Venezuela chapter, foresees spoken word being replaced by brain-to-brain communication.
What’s wrong with talking?
Jose Cordeiro: “It’s a very primitive technology. It’s inefficient, slow and [uses] narrow bandwidth.”
Er, are we talking about talking?
JC: “Yes. I speak to you word by word and you have to listen to me word by word. Meanwhile, you cannot answer immediately.”
I have the time.
JC: “Also, in talking, we can never be precise. It’s really hard to convey some ideas, especially when we speak in different languages. You and I are now talking in English. Yet, you are fluent in Dutch; I am fluent in Spanish. I’m sure that we could soon have a misunderstanding.” 
So what are we going to do about it?
JC: “In the future, we’ll simply transfer our thoughts. After all, most of what we want to say is already in our minds. Already, scientists are working on computer-to-brain interfaces. In 5 or 10 years, they’ll also be able to work on transferring data from brain to brain. If you connect two computers, they’ll share information instantly. That is exactly what we’ll be able to do with our brains. It’s like communication in a telepathic way.”
Right. Who would be interested? 
JC: “I’m sure people who can’t communicate due to a handicap would be very interested. And once we see how it can help communication, others will also want to try. Just to give another example, very soon the camera in our mobile phones will perform better than the human eye. If a blind person will be able to use that technology to see—and see even better than you and me—then why wouldn’t we try it out as well? Of course, some people don’t want it, like some don’t want to use mobile phones. But once we transcend the limitations of our current state, it will be fantastic.”
Isn’t that sad in a way? I enjoyed our conversation…
JC: “Me too. We were the first animal species able to talk. Back then, inventing speech was a great way to communicate ideas. But it hasn’t really evolved. Yet, very soon, we’ll communicate faster, more accurately and in a more sophisticated way. It will be truly revolutionary.” 
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