[chongli]

Imagine you could stimulate the brain directly, what would that look like?

It needn't 'look' like any of our senses. Direct brain-computer interaction could take the form of an internal dialogue, similar to how a person might mentally rehearse both sides of an anticipated conversation in their head.

[erikpukinskis]

OK! So you're talking about sound data then. We also have a really great input device for that.

How would the direct neural input be better than hearing?

[chongli]

It is not sound data. It is words without sound. There is no tone, no pitch, no volume. It is just words. Thoughts. Concepts. Ideas.

Hearing has so many drawbacks. It is limited in range. It is affected by environmental noise. It is linear and if you miss a word you need to have it repeated somehow, which may not always be possible. Thoughts have none of these limitations.

[XorNot]

Infinite volume with no hearing damage?

I've never been able to find a satisfactory answer on how the cochlear implant behaves like that. I somewhat suspect nobody with hearing who developed it actually knows.

[erikpukinskis]

You mean like this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_to_eleven