Neural Dust – "Smart Dust" – has entered the mainstream via the Independent's article: "Tiny implant could connect humans and machines like never before."  It is implied to be a new technology that can wirelessly link a human brain to a computer via the implantation of a device the size of a grain of sand. The article below was published by me at Activist Post in 2013 and draws upon research from many years previous. This invention is clearly nothing new; but when the mainstream media begins highlighting something that is literally wireless mind control, it's worth taking note. It is also worth noting that, as more people learn about science fiction becoming science reality, they are becoming increasingly hesitant about the lack of ethical boundaries for what is emerging.

Some people might have heard about Smart Dust; nanoparticles that can be employed as sensor networks for a range of security and environmental applications. Now, however, literal Smart Dust for the brain is being proposed as the next step toward establishing a brain-computer interface.

The system is officially called "neural dust" and works to "monitor the brain from the inside." Inventors are attempting to overcome the hurdle of how to best implant sensors that can remain over the course of one's life. Researchers at Berkeley Engineering believe they have found a novel way to achieve this:

This paper explores the fundamental system design trade-offs and ultimate size, power, and bandwidth scaling limits of neural recording systems.

A network of tiny implantable sensors could function like an MRI inside the brain, recording data on nearby neurons and transmitting it back out. The smart dust particles would all contain an extremely small CMOS sensor capable of measuring electrical activity in nearby neurons. The researchers envision a piezoelectric material backing the CMOS capable of generating electrical signals from ultrasound waves. The process would also work in reverse, allowing the dust to beam data back via high-frequency sound waves. The neural