Back in 1999 a movie was released that mostly flew under the radar. Only appreciated in small circles of nerds, it didn't really find mass-market appeal, but was a chilling look into a possible future of the world.
The movie was The Matrix and although you've probably never seen it, it involved the human race being enslaved in a virtual reality version of real life while being harvested for energy like batteries.
Japanese scientists have just achieved the first step toward the eventual enslavement of mankind. They have created a system where a player can control an avatar in Second Life purely by the power of thought.
Get used to Second Life, after we're all rigged up to the robotic mainframe it will be the only life we know.
Currently, our future looks bleak as we would only be able to control the avatar's walking, but researchers hope to be able to eventually allow for complicated gestures and as much functionality as possible. Ideally to help disabled people control the "game".