Rich R,

I had the same idea. I read a science fiction book a couple of decades ago called The Ship Who Sang, by Anne McCaffrey, about a woman whose brain was connected to a space ship's computer so that she controlled the ship directly via her brain's activity. So, maybe Joe is strapped into some sort of high-tech contraption with cables and such plugged directly into his brain, and the database info just pops up onto the monitor screen as soon as he reads the threads.

We may never really know the full truth. ;->

Helen