Imagine for a second the things you could do if all humans had the power to communicate telepathically. Detectives would be able to zero in on the real suspects, your wife would know you lied when you told her you didn’t break her favorite mug, and we’d all be able to communicate with each other whenever the mood to not actually speak arose. Of course, this is all assuming we wouldn’t have the power to block each other’s communications either. Well, there’s some good news and some bad news: Telepathy as it’s defined isn’t real, but we’re coming close.

How is that possible? The above video from BrainCraft goes through the entire history of technologically enabled telepathy, which is also called brain-to-brain communication. But what it misses out on is that brain-to-brain communication has gotten further than just sending a “hello” across the world or being able to move a rat’s tail.

Last August, researchers at the University of Washington were actually able to achieve mind control. They hooked two people up to electroencephalography (EEG) machines — the ones with the electrode caps — and had one person play a video game. Using the same technology as mentioned in the video, they managed to send impulses from the gamer, whose fingers were moving, to the scientist on the receiving end. He subsequently, and involuntarily, moved his index finger to push the spacebar on the computer in front of him.

Telepathy may not be completely real, but at least it’s fun using science to try to make it real.