thought-controlled adj.

of devices, computers, etc.: controlled by a person’s thoughts or neural impulses

  • 1934 C. Buchanan & A. Carr Warriors of Eternity in Astounding Stories Aug. 89/1 page image Carl Buchanan Dr. Arch Carr bibliography

    Inside the dark quadrant thousands of Estan space ships and thought-controlled projectiles were waiting.

  • 1936 C. A. Brandt In the Realm of Books in Amazing Stories Aug. 134/1 (review of E. R. Burroughs' Swords of Mars) page image C. A. Brandt bibliography

    Through a girl slave he meets on Fal Sivas, who has invented and perfected a space ship operated by a mechanical brain, Carter discovered that the device obeys his own thought impulses also…. Appropriating the thought-controlled space ship, he reaches the nearer Moon.

  • 1954 R. E. Smith Top Secret Boomerang in Fantastic Universe Sept. 91/1 page image Richard R. Smith bibliography

    ‘T-48’, he thought clearly. The hidden, telepathically-controlled mechanism caught the command…. This was one of the ultimatess [sic]: a thought-controlled machine. He wondered why science hadn’t developed such a machine earlier.

  • 1955 Design Flaw in Astounding Science Fiction Oct. 89/2 page image

    How is a wish translated into a mechanical movement? Explain this to a physicist, in full detail, and he will have all the knowledge necessary to build a thought-controlled relay. Until you can describe the steps necessary to produce a thought-controlled relay, you do not have a full, really fundamental, understanding of how you wiggle a finger.

  • 1977 C. Thomas Firefox 9 Craig Thomas bibliography

    The system…seems designed to couple radar and infra-red, those two standard forms of detection and guidance in modern aircraft—with a thought-guided and -controlled arsenal aboard the plane.

  • 1986 E. S. Rabkin in G. E. Slusser & E. S. Rabkin Hard Science Fiction 33 Eric S. Rabkin

    He first approaches Lys through the underground tunnel in a thought-controlled, needle-shaped car.

  • 2016 K. Platoni in Wall St. Journal 23–24 Jan. c3/1

    As part of the federally funded BrainGate research team, Dr. Shenoy’s lab is working on developing thought-controlled prosthetic limbs.

Research requirements

antedating 1934, in Astounding
Research History
Added to the OED in September 2009 with the earliest cite from a 1977 techno-thriller.

Jesse Sheidlower submitted a number of significantly earlier citations.

Last modified 2022-03-19 00:35:54
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.