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Robots could soon read your mind - and there are no laws against it
But a panel at the World Economic Forum, in Davos, warned of the terrifying possibility of hackers reading people's innermost thoughts.
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Nita Farahany, professor of Law and philosophy at Duke University, said: "Beyond two-factor identification...is using neural signatures - 'pass thoughts'.
"So you could think like a song or a little ditty in your head while you are wearing a consumer based EEG device and then that, which has a unique neural signature, can be used as your pass code.
"It turns out that's an incredibly effective, incredibly safe and almost impossible to replicate pass code, so there is discussion about using pass thoughts."
She added: "Then you've got to really think about privacy."
Prof Farahany described a not-too-distant future where people constantly wear EEG devices and share their brain activity, thoughts, mental health - and even diagnoses for diseases like Alzheimer's - with computers and tablets and online.
But she warned once out there, "not good Samaritans" could access the data. She said: "The question is, what we do in that world.
"The idea that law is going to help us is not likely. There are no legal protections from having your mind involuntarily read," she added.
Robot teaching assistants were also predicted at during the panel discussion.