Prof Warwick

DeVore

I've seen him lecture at TCD and whatever you might think about the man, he's not a nut. He's very articulate, well educated and (seemingly) well funded.
Some of his ideas are clearly for the media to lap up, but we live in an age where even research scientists have to "sell the sizzle" to get funding.

The register has been fairly vocal about putting him down, but I hardly think The Register is a good source of academic critique for neuro-biology research.
Other scientists have said his work is not going to further the field or that its just for show...
That can be professional jealousy (its quite common in academic circles) and if it IS attracting a great deal of attention, perhaps thats a GOOD thing. Too often scientists are portrayed as boring Poindexters in white coats with no lives. At least he's putting a spark into his life (apologies for the pun )

The point is, people cant say whats going to happen in his experiement, so that makes it research at the very fundamental level. you dont know... you do it ... now you know. QED.

Einstein said "If at first an idea doesnt not seem ridiculous, then it has no merit." Bright guy that Einstein...


DeV.

dahamsta

I don't really think he's a total fruitcake - although I do think there's a few crossed wires there somewhere - but it has to be said, the guy is a total media whore. Perhaps I shouldn't hold that against him - I'm a wee bit of a media whore myself - but he strikes me as a bullsh1tter too, he's mixing fact with fiction. Is he a scientist or a technologist? Can you really be both? (<- This was a genuine enquiry, not a troll. Can you?)

adam

Cerberus

I also seen him lecture at TCD and thought that he came across as a fairly intelligent dude who is really doing this for science/humanity. Calling him a media whore is slightly unfair. We could do with a lot more of these charismatic scientists to give science in schools that much needed boost in interest. If Warwick never even used the term "cyborg" to describe his experiments then the media would have anyway. Sometimes in science you have to sell your project based on the part of it that will interest the general public and not necessarily the part that most interests science. He talked about eventually being able to send and receieve emotions across the internet but of course the media will pick it up straight away as "cybersex". I also think that he is putting his money where his mouth is. How many scientists would be willing to test, what is admittedly, a dangerous experiment on themselves? The applications that I think his project will most benefit is being able to patch up severed/broken nerve links in paralysed people. If this was the only aspect that he tried to sell his project on then he wouldn't be getting half as much attention/funding because most of the public aren't paralysed and so wouldn't be that interested in it. This is just reiterating what DeVore said.

satchmo

You've gotta remember that sometimes it can be hard to get funding for large-scale projects like the ones he does, so the more media attention he can get, the better he'll be able to fund his research. Maybe he's just doing what he has to.