Micro electronic implants

Yo Mamma

In a few years mobile phones will be worn as small, fashionable ear pieces. This is not a half-assed prophecy. Serious money is being poured into research that will ensure this becomes a reality. But there are some well respected people in the industry who are now genuinely concerned at where micro electronics will take us as a species. They are particularly worried about devices that interact directly with the human body and are calling for slow-down in research because they fear things are moving too quickly.

Micro electronic implants that release drugs or regulate body functions will obviously benefit millions of people and any advances in this field can only be a good thing right? There are already devices undergoing clinical trials that can do just that. These devices can send information about the patient's condition via the internet and the doctor can adjust the device accordingly - again via the internet. The benefits are blindingly obvious, 'but blinding' is the key word here.

Let's go back to the mobile phone (a non-essential application). A short step from the mobile phone earpiece is one that's implanted. It would be powered by blood flow and completely invisible from the outside. Given the current fashion status of mobile phones these days, would YOU want to be the only one who still had a lame assed ear piece - while everybody else had the latest Nokia implants?

And what about video games? Imagine your adrenal gland being stimulated when those nasties pop up. It would be one HELL of a rush, and that's just ONE of the glands that electronic implants could stimulate if you catch my drift. Don't go thinking that the moral majority wouldn't allow it - consumers would DEMAND it! The same technology that benefits medicine would also benefit the entertainment industry too. Who needs drugs when your own body can give you the rush of a lifetime with a little help from technology.

Of course ALL these implants (medical or otherwise) are being developed with IP addresses so they can be controlled via a remote computer.

WHOSE COMPUTER - is one issue of the debate.

_CreeD_

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Yo Mamma:

would YOU want to be the only one who still had a lame assed ear piece - while everybody else had the latest Nokia implants?
</font>

So, the main problem will be trying to work out just who's head is ringing?...I see.

Jak

Yes I want a phone locked to my fkin brain. So I can experience all of the following ...

1. To be on call whenever someone wants to ring me. Especially those times when I forget to turn my phone off before going to bed.

2. To start having a conversation with someone while walking alone down the street with my hands in my pockets and simultaneously looking like a lunatic.

3. To let a 16 year old sales rep from a Nokia store attach something to the inside of my skull.

I'm sure it will happen, but I doubt I will be in the queue.

JAK.

As for adrenaline triggering etc ... people should try a few sports - it is a worrying thing when inactive computer games compete with actual outdoor activities. Cyber athlete is the most awful paradox I have seen in quite some time.

JustHalf

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Jak:
3. To let a 16 year old sales rep from a Nokia store attach something to the inside of my skull.</font>

Sure they're all fully trained. If you need any fears settled, talk to Kevin Warwick, aka Captain Cyborg (or buffoon, depending on who you talk to).

MiCr0

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Yo Mamma:
In a few years mobile phones will be worn as small, fashionable ear pieces. This is not a half-assed prophecy.
</font>

yep
its here already and called a bluetooth earpiece. bluetooth connection to phone unit stored nearby.

adnans

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Yo Mamma:
Imagine your adrenal gland being stimulated when those nasties pop up. It would be one HELL of a rush, and that's just ONE of the glands that electronic implants could stimulate if you catch my drift. </font>

i dont know what youre talking about

how the hell are people gonna compare mobile phones then. it wouldnt make any sense at all.

adnans

Xterminator

Think of all the possible benifits such tech could bring. I belive it far outways the negatives.
Little nano machines in your bloodstream that navigate to the cancerout tumor and destroy it.
A language intrepter that can decipher what you hear, and provide you vocab, to talk back!
Hearing devices for the deaf
20/20 vison for the seeing impaired via digital image sent direct to cortex etc.

Some of these are already in part production, but some are still only being dreamed.

amp

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by _CreeD_:
So, the main problem will be trying to work out just who's head is ringing?...I see.</font>

No doubt the manufacturers would insist that you had their logo tattooed to your forehead.

Also the meaning of "headcrash" would change radically.

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Lunacy Abounds! GLminesweeper RO><ORS!
art is everything and of course nothing and possibly also a sausage

Shinji

I don't see the problem. I'm sure some folk will manage to mess it all up, but the basic technical idea is a good one and, all things being equal, I'm all for the mechanical or biomechanical augmentation of human abilities.

I know some people react badly to the idea of nanomachines in the bloodstream, crystal eye structures giving enhanced vision, semi-mechanical devices providing built-in comms and information access and even enhancing muscular strength or the resistance of the body to harm... I can see WHY people would feel this way, too. That's their choice... But I personally am all for the continuation of research into man/machine integration technologies.

Magwitch

The adaption of current phone technology to implants is just one tiny example of something much bigger.

In the ranks of natures creatures mankind is not particularly strong for his size (very weak actually) or very quick (quite lethargic compared to animal reation time). We do however posess a brain which is unparalleled.

Through computers we increase our ability to analyse and co-ordinate infomation a million fold, in other fields we simularly excel. We as a species will not evolve naturally as evolution takes place in small isolated groups over very long times, given the current global village this makes evolution as we understand it near impossible. So computers and technologies will be co-opted into (initially) our lives and (eventually) our bodies to allow is to do what we have always striven to do and that is dominate our environment. To us it may sound scarry today, but in twenty years or longer our current outlook on the world and life may seem very primative indeed to a people for who this sort of integration is natural and everyday.

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Keep your powder dry and your pants moist

[This message has been edited by Magwitch (edited 20-06-2001).]

scutchy

If only Napoleon could have seen what he was doing when he instructed his officers to tie their pocket watches to their wrists...

OSiriS

Many ppl may not see a problem with this, but where do you draw the line. Watch Gattica and you will see a very good example, although granted the film is about gentic alteration and not electronic augmentation ... the ideas are very applicable.

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http://clans.quake.ie/osiris
Fragnet

Celt

Gattica was a verygood movie, and thought provoking.

Yo Mamma

Anybody who has ever read one of Iain M.Banks's Culture novels will know that our future lies in that direction. Life spans of hundreds of years, copying neurological and biochemical brain waves to create a backup mind if u lose yours, growing new bodies, the ability to change sex from male to female at will, super intelligent computers that will run every aspect of our lives and indeed the whole planet leaving us humans to just get on with life...........................that is if we manage to make it into the next century without completely destroying ourselves!!

adnans

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Yo Mamma:
Anybody who has ever read one of Iain M.Banks's Culture novels will know that our future lies in that direction. Life spans of hundreds of years, copying neurological and biochemical brain waves to create a backup mind if u lose yours, growing new bodies, the ability to change sex from male to female at will, super intelligent computers that will run every aspect of our lives and indeed the whole planet leaving us humans to just get on with life...........................that is if we manage to make it into the next century without completely destroying ourselves!!</font>

mmmmm.... so lazy...

adnans

Jak

Using these technologies in the case of medicine is one thing, however using them to assist people who are otherwise healthy, but just fkin lazy is a trend I would sooner avoid.

Also, I believe that if mankind begins to rely too heavily on technology to provide him with answers, our progress will grind to a halt.

Cake Fiend

EVOLUTION
Inevitability

For better or worse, this will happen. Deal with it.

Enygma

I think Electronic Augmentation would be cool. I'd have a 3 gig mp3-player in my arm and voice controlled speakers next to me eardrums. Also a little toolkit hidden in your hand would be dead handy I'm sure we'd all agree. No need for heavy toolkits etc. Need a screwdriver? Hmmm the one in my right index finger should do the trick

As for phones. I dunno about having one of those babies implanted in my skull. When you see what those things do to computer monitors when someone rings it kinda freaks you out.

What about a credit-card chip in your body, you could buy something by simply taking it. Maybe they'd scan your card or whatever but it would really speed things up. You could get your balance projected onto your field of vision too, just by asking for it.

In fact you could have a complete voice-controlled computer terminal in your eyes!

I'm not convinced that there's even a moral/ethical issue here. It's the next logical step from prosthetics(sp?)

And why should only sick people be allowed take advantage of these new technologies?

I want to see crosshairs in my field of vision too

TheWolf

wow, just thought what they could do to the porn industry. mmmmmmmm.......... now THATS the future... ROFL!!