Ludwig Wittgenstein once imagined that everyone had a box with something in it called a "beetle." Denying the possibility of private language, the philosopher wrote, "No one can look into anyone else's box, and everyone says he knows what a beetle is only by looking at his beetle." Wittgenstein meant that we learn a word by observing the rules governing its use, but no one sees another person's beetle: "It would be quite possible for everyone to have something different in his box," or nothing at all. An apparently intractable fact of life is that our thoughts are inaccessible to one another. Our skulls are like space helmets; we are trapped in our heads, unable to convey the quiddity of our sensations. But how much longer will our thoughts be truly private?

Dr Jepsen told CNBC that the technology would speed up innovation - for example, filmmakers could potentially download their dreams and product designers could download their thoughts and send them to a 3-D printer. Dr Mary Lou Jepsen (pictured), a former Facebook and Google executive, founded Openwater in mid-2016 with the'moonshot' goal of communication with thought - to read and output ones thoughts. Dr Mary Lou Jepsen, Openwater's CEO, told CNBC that the technology would speed up innovation - for example, filmmakers could potentially download their dreams and product designers could download their thoughts and send them to a 3-D printer It will work on what Musk calls the'neural lace' technology, implanting tiny brain electrodes that may one day upload and download thoughts. Dr Mary Lou Jepsen's Openwater isn't the only one conducting research in the field of telepathy.Elon Musk's Neuralink company is working to link the human brain with a machine interface by creating micron-sized devices

How will Openwater's technology prevent AI from taking over existing jobs? The trope, of course, is that AI and Robots are coming for our jobs. Automation will take over, so the monologue goes, and there will be nothing for us to do anymore. But this discussion has been ongoing since the term AI was coined in the late 1950s. The response by some was to invert the discussion and the term itself and to create a world opposite to AI.