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Mating Human Cells With Circuitry

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the but-can-you-jump-30-feet dept.

casper911 writes, "Looks like the making of a real $6 Million Dollar Man may not be so far-fetched. The University of California in Berkeley has found a way to mate human cells with circuitry." That's it: Screw wearables. I want the hardware wired right in.

2 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. Another call by Esperandi · · Score: 5

    I've called for this before in many forums and with a loud voice, I'll repeat the call here since its relevant.

    I am looking for any surgeon to implant a digital watch face into my left forearm. I will gladly be your guinea pig or keep your identity completely secret if you're afraid you'll do your license. Hell, I'll even provide my own anisthetic...

    oh, and I wanna webcast the operation, but you can cover your face if you wish.

    Please, there's got to be a black market surgeon around here someplace!

    Esperandi
    Would black market surgeons and mad scientists read Slashdot? I certainly think so.

  2. Interesting implications by Randseed · · Score: 5
    This has interesting implications. Sure, if they got it right they could turn people into Borg. But there are more agreeable things which could be done.

    1) Telepathy. Your brain links to an encrypted radio link, sort of like mental wireless Ethernet.

    2) Direct computer-human interfaces. People could control their computers, fly airplanes, and perform other tasks merely by thinking of them. Obviously, this would still require training.

    3) Mental HUD displays. A user could allocate a portion of his visual space to a visual computer display.

    4) Probably the most interesting implications would involve improved learning abilities. It would be really interesting to have the capability to link a kind of mental hard drive into someone. This would be sort of like Neo in The Matrix when he plugs himself into a computer, and several seconds later wakes up saying, ``I know Kung-Fu!''

    Obviously, any kind of interface like this would probably require a lot of training. If people are able to allocate part of their visual field to a display, they have to be able to turn it on and off, and that would require training if the interface is to be truely transparent.

    I don't think we're anywhere near this point yet, though. Give science a few years and we might start seeing very interesting applications of hardware-wetware interfaces.