Computer-mediated linking (brain–computer–brain interface)

Every human brain-to-brain system built to date is really a brain-computer-brain interface (BCBI): the sender's brain talks to a computer through a BCI, the computer transmits and re-encodes, and a computer-to-brain interface writes into the receiver. Nothing about the two brains is directly connected — the computer performs the decoding, the arbitrary assignment of a code to a symbol, the routing, and the stimulation. This is an honesty distinction, because popular coverage often implies a direct neural bridge.

The mediation is not incidental — it is load-bearing. The computer is where the message is given meaning (a decoded intention becomes a chosen bit), where reliability is engineered (thresholding, error handling), and where the ethical control points sit (what is transmitted, to whom, with whose consent). Framing BBIs as BCBIs makes clear that 'connecting brains' today means connecting two prosthetic input/output devices through conventional networking.