Cutting-edge neuroscience has escaped from the lab and is suddenly showing up everywhere, changing the way we practice law, go shopping—even, possibly, fall in love.

It's been only a decade or so since the world got hardwired, "Google" became a verb, and texting turned into a lifestyle. But if you're still struggling to thumb a message, brace yourself: A whole new revolution in neuroscience is about to shake up our world.

"Just as information technology has affected everything from the way we do business to human communication," says Zack Lynch, executive director of the Neurotechnology Industry Organization, "it will be the science of the brain that drives the fundamental changes of the future." You can already see it starting to happen, and it may affect the way we spend our money, choose our mates, and punish criminals. It could even change our concepts of guilt and innocence.

From the November 2008 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine

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