Brain device could spot when you daydream at work

And other stories from the stranger side of life

An office worker at their desk
Thousands of workers are struggling with mental health issues
(Image credit: Menahem Kahaha/AFP/Getty Images)

A brainwave device could give office workers a jolt if they daydream during working hours, reported The Times. The productivity software can spot from a wearer’s brainwaves if they are daydreaming and, through a haptic scarf, jolt them back to work. “If done well, neurotechnology has extraordinary promise,” said Nita Farahany, a technology ethicist, but “if done poorly, it could become the most oppressive technology we have ever introduced on a wide scale across society”.

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  Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.