oh dear
Between the LASIK and my generally geeky ways, my friends give me a lot of shit about my potential for becoming a post-human abomination. Digital-themed tattoo? I've thought about it, but probably not. RFID chip? Maybe in a few years. Intracranial bluetooth headset? Eh, I'll wait until I start seeing them in rap videos. I'm not actually all that anxious to modify my body in permanent ways.
But this... Oh man. I want this. The ability to feel electromagnetic fields, people. To tell when a wire is live, or a hard drive is being read, or a transmitter is on, or if a surface is ferrous. It's just a little too cool. Make it safe, then sign me up. Sorry, humanity.
Comments
The slippery slope of transhumanity! Next thing you know, you're going to be running from the Yakuza in Chiba City, Tom.
If you get magnetic fingertips, you're going to need a better handle than "tommy."
Rare earth magnets are strong. Wouldn't doing something like that make it kind of a hassle to, say, handle credit cards?
Oh, guess not.
"But nobody's finger fell off, and Huffman's results were better than they'd imagined."
I'd say.
I. Want. One.
I doubt they would necessarily be *that* dangerous, considering what else people put under their skins these day as decoration. If nothing else, a strong (preferably inert metal) magnet could be dipped in silicon and embedded.
I think that's what they did with this one, Michael. I don't think you can have your choice of metal (you need a neodymium magnet to get sufficient strength in that small a package, I'd think), but they did wrap it in silicon.
Apparently the silicon sheath eventually broke down, for whatever reason (an infection resulted). At the end of the article they say they're going to try again with a thicker sheath, though.
Some reason it has to be implanted in the finger? I'm only sayin.
actually, there is a good reason. the density of nerves and brain matter to process them is much higher there than elsewhere, presumably allowing for these tiny movements and heat changes to be more easily detected. check out this graphic (from this page, in case direct linking gets blocked). It shows how our body parts map to the somatosensory cortex, and how much brain matter each one gets allocated (represented by the size they're drawn at -- keep in mind the total skin area that each represents, too).
You could implant it in your lip (or genitals!), I suppose, and still have a high degree of sensitivity. But that seems a bit impractical. Stick it in, say, your forearm, and you might not be able to feel the sensations at all.
Those other parts generally know where to go already.
What I really want it to be able to use this as a compass. Then I'll never get lost!
Post A Comment