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 I feel like the answer to your question, vgaffney, lies in the existing technology that you point to, such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. We've managed to connect so many threads of this class back to Facebook, and I think the way it functions could be used as a metaphor to explain your confusion over how to reconcile having access to another's emotions and thoughts but not be reading their mind. I think Chorost was suggesting that rather than open a computer or iPhone app, log into Facebook, and check our friends' news feeds, we'd simply have all of that information, via the internet, in our brains. The data stream would be like a news feed on Facebook, where people post status updates and talk to each other. Just because I can see someone's status doesn't mean I understand the emotions behind it and just because I read a wall-to-wall conversation between two friends doesn't mean I heard the entire story. 

I love that we had this conversation with Chorost, who is only able to hear us because of technology, over Skype, without which we would not have been able to have him in the classroom. Perhaps the future of the world wide mind would be a place where we are all able to seamlessly share thoughts and ideas, ask questions, and debate without the difficulties of setting up a webcam and having to repeat ourselves when someone's cochlear implants can't quite make out the yelling from the back of the classroom.