Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg counts on telepathy for next big leap in communication

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes telepathy will be the ultimate way to communicate using technology without keyboards or voices.

"You'll just be able to think of something and your friends will immediately be able to experience it too, if you'd like," Zuckerberg said.

Brain-to-computer interfaces have recently been demonstrated to work across distances and convey thoughts effectively.

Zuckerberg said his company was developing technology to recognize objects, scenes, and people in images and videos.

"These systems need to understand the context of the images and videos," Zuckerberg said, adding that part of the company's goal was to build "AI systems that are better than humans at our primary senses: vision, listening, etc".

With its Oculus acquisition, Facebook has already given us a hint of what it wants to do with virtual reality -- to make users feel as if they are right next to their friends in real time, points out CNN.

Fielding questions from users and celebrities, including actor Arnold Schwarzenegger and physicist Stephen Hawking, Zuckerberg said helping people share information using videos was Facebook's next big goal.

The 31-year-old entrepreneur, who compulsorily reads a novel or two every month, works out thrice a week and runs his dog, believes immersive experiences like virtual reality will eventually be the norm.

"And after that, we'll have the power to share our full sensory and emotional experience with people whenever we'd like," Zuckerberg said during the hour-long session.

When Hawking asked him what questions he would like answered, Zuckerberg said: "I'm most interested in questions about people. What will enable us to live forever? How do we cure all diseases? How does the brain work? How does learning work and how we can empower humans to learn a million times more?"

Speaking to the Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington about news and the need for speed and content, Zuckerberg said there was "an important place for news organizations that can deliver smaller bits of news faster and more frequently in pieces," but he wasn't sure that anyone had "nailed" it yet.

He also clarified Facebook's current "real name" policy, which has often been criticised as discriminatory and possibly life-threatening to trans people.

Facebook removed hundreds of drag queens from its site last year, before relaxing the rule from real name to "authentic names". The issue has been further confused with Facebook sponsoring San Francisco's Gay Pride festival, and offering to change profile pictures into rainbow ones in support.

"Real name does not mean your legal name. Your real name is whatever you go by and what your friends call you. If your friends all call you by a nickname and you want to use that name on Facebook, you should be able to do that," Zuckerberg said.