AP Article On Cyborg Steve Mann

Vellmont writes "Slashdots favorite Cyborg, University of Toronto Engineering Professor Steve Mann has an AP article about him out. You can read the article on Salon or Yahoo (as well as many other places). The article is well done, and I particularly love Prof. Mann's way of dealing with stores who prohibit videotaping. Slashdot ran a previous story about Prof. Mann's troubles with Airport Security in March 2002."

Comments

I for one . . .

[EmCeeHawking]

. . . Welcome our new Steve Mann Cyborg overlords.

Slashdots Favorite Cyborg?

[holzp]

I thought it was Gates of the Borg?

He should be careful ...

[DrJimbo]

From the yahoo story: One of his common setups involves a computer with a Pentium 4 processor, at least 512 gigabytes of memory ...

Someone might mug him to get that 512 gig of memory. Or even just to get the battery needed to power it.

Re:He should be careful ...

[Phillup]

A DIMM isn't that small... where do you put >= 512 of them?

Has to be a typo... probably 512 MB.

Re:He should be careful ...

[nnnneedles]

I'm starting to think that these journalists make these factual errors to get peoples attention.

Have you noticed they always put a much bigger number than it was supposed to be? The error is never a lesser number...

Re:He should be careful ...

[anticypher]

What about the burn marks from the heat? 512 Gigs of memory would have to dissipate an awful lot of heat, and the body doesn't make that good a conductor.

Of course, this is /. and we know what the editor meant. 512 bytes of memory and 16 toggle switches :-)

the AC

Re:He should be careful ...

[sgifford]

If they did, though, he'd have a full record of what the mugger looked like and did, relayed through a wireless network back to another computer.

I saw this guy at USENIX a few years ago, and he was really interesting to listen to.

Ummm

[clifgriffin]

I'd like to see a bewolf cluster of...hims.

Re:Ummm

[sofakingl]

It's called the Borg, and you probably don't want to see them (at least not up close).

Re:Ummm

[NanoGator]

"I'd like to see a bewolf cluster of...hims."

Your wish is my command.

Re:Ummm

[Steve Newall]

This is a cluster of borgs^h^h^h^h students at Prof. Mann's ECE1766 course at the University of Toronto. http://wearcam.org/ece1766/class2.jpg

Eeeegads!

[BoldAC]

...so much so that going without the apparatus often leaves him feeling nauseous, unsteady, naked

This is the way I feel too sometimes... if I forget to leave my pager, cell phone, lap-top, sidekick, and laptop behind...

Honestly though, this guy is addicted to information. If you tried to take google away from me, I would feel the same way. Information is addicted... there's no way around it.

AC

Re:Eeeegads!

[saunabad]

Honestly though, this guy is addicted to information.

I think this guy is more addicted to publicity than information. I've seen many articles of him, but I still have no idea if he has actually accomplished anything else than just to wear a computer and a camera all the time. No offence to anyone, but what is the point?

Re:Eeeegads!

[Neop2Lemus]

I agree.

I was at the Toronto Film Festival a few years ago and they'd done a film about him (here)

We walked out on that film. What made the hour we sat in that theatre more offensive than interesting was that this guy wore his gear around, really had no idea what to do with it, and had a huge ego because he had toys on his head that other people didn't. It wasen't that it was a hobby: cool, but possibly inapplicable to real life, but that he thought he was onto something important and he wasen't. I mean, he'd walk into a WalMart and set up a fuss when they told him no cameras in the store.

Why the university keeps him on I have no idea. If someone can tell me, I'd like to know (seriously, I would like to know).

Re:Eeeegads!

[Trolling4Dollars]

Like one of the other posters said, he does appear to have become a little more... pedantic(?) with age. But to be fair, I think this is one of the possible problems with people who are heavily involved with computing.

I've found myself having a greater amount of trouble interacting and dealing with other people as I've become more and more entrenched in computing. I spend about 12-20 hours a day using computers. Whether it's at work (about 7.5 hours spent there. I don't even go out for lunch anymore.) at home (multiple projects going on here with my systems) or at friends and relatives homes (fixing problems or connecting them to my network via VPN). My general day starts at 8:00AM and ends at about 3:00/4:00AM every day with about 95% of it spent in front of computers.

The funny thing is that I find myslef becoming so annoyed with people when they claim to know something about computers, but in the end they only know a little bit about one aspect (web design, hardware, specific lnaguages, etc...). What's really funny is that I am completely aware of the fact that I have (in psychology more than anything else) become the "Unix guy". When I first started working with PCs back in the late 90s, I ran into a few "Unix guys" (which Mann seems to be one of) and they annoyed the piss out of me. They seemed arrogant, impatient and generally unpleasant. I never really understood why. (This was also back when I thought Unix was dying) But after getting annoyed with Windows and moving to Linux, and then working with Sun Solaris, Tru64 and HP-UX... well, I started to see a lot of those traits just naturally manifesting themselves within me. I still work hard to maintain a pleasant personality and I don't wear suspenders or have any facial hair, so I'm not 100% the "Unix guy". But I can now understand their frustrations. Here is the key issue: (Note this in your memory banks for future use in arguments) Many of the concepts of Unix are basic computing concepts applicable to ALL platforms that people on ANY platform SHOULD be made aware of IF they really want to know how to use a computer. The frustration of the "Unix guy" is much like that of the parent that has to deal with the 16 year old who just got a driver's license and now thinks they actually know how to drive. (I'm not saying that all users of other platforms are like this, but many are. I've met plenty of really great Windows admins on the net who know as much about basic computing concepts as any other Unix guy.)

So... I think that Mann's experience is very similar with regard to his take on the world. He's moved ahead in a way. Concepts that are basic to him, are esoteric to the world at large. However, his concepts are a set of meta-realities that many of us have not fully experienced. I will argue that some of us are halfway there though. Just yesterday when I was talking to my wife about my lifelong love of machines over humans, I mentioned to her that to me a computer is an extension of the physical world. Back when I was in high school (1980s) I became instantly aware of how I could move much of what I had in the real world into the computer. That continues to my homelife today. All of my computers here at home are networked and any one of them serves as a head for all the others. I've eliminated cassettes, video tapes, audio cds and dvds from my visible life by keeping them only for backup purposes. They take up less space when they needn't be displayed. Instead, all of my important data is on the home application/file server. I am also slowly moving to a point where the majority of the CPU power will be centralized in a cluster with only a few wireless terminals needed around the house. Ideally one or more of those terminals will be wearable. At that point, the need for much in the way of physical items becomes less useful. What need is there for a television, when I can look anywhere in front of me an watch a movie while surrounded with data that constantly keeps me informed of all things that are per

Re:Eeeegads!

[gujo-odori]

I think this guy is more addicted to publicity than information

Uh, yeah, I'd say. My favorite line from the article comes from the description of him starting to experiment with wearable computers in the 1970s, where it says "He wore one to a high school dance." I bet he was real popular with the ladies. No doubt he was noticed, though.

Internet Link

[vpscolo]

One thing that I think most people would benefit from is a link to the net, or prehaps better a secure enclopedia. How many times have you thought "I must look up xys" and then forgot. To just have that information at your fingertips would be excellent. However of course it depends on how deep it all llinks in. The last thing you want is a hacker breaking into your brain and controlling you. An army of zombies? No thankyou Rus

Not a cyborg.

[praksys]

He's not a cyborg, unless some of this hardware actually involved surgery or the replacement of biological parts. He's a gargoyle.

Re:Not a cyborg.

[Poeir]

But according to this article, linked to in the summary, some of it is implants, so he is a cyborg.

Re:Not a cyborg.

[praksys]

But according to this article, linked to in the summary, some of it is implants, so he is a cyborg.

According to the slashdot summary maybe, but there was no mention of implants in the orginal NYT article.

You can't get it from the NYT without paying now, so here is the original text:

STEVE MANN, an engineering professor at the University of Toronto, has lived as a cyborg for more than 20 years, wearing a web of wires, computers and electronic sensors that are designed to augment his memory, enhance his vision and keep tabs on his vital signs. Although his wearable computer system sometimes elicited stares, he never encountered any problems going through the security gates at airports.

Last month that changed. Before boarding a Toronto-bound plane at St. John's International Airport in Newfoundland, Dr. Mann says, he went through a three-day ordeal in which he was ultimately strip-searched and injured by security personnel. During the incident, he said, $56,800 worth of his $500,000 equipment was lost or damaged beyond repair, including the eyeglasses that serve as his display screen.

His lawyer in Toronto, Gary Neinstein, sent letters two weeks ago to Air Canada, the airport and the Canadian transportation authority arguing that they acted negligently and seeking reimbursement for the damaged equipment so that Dr. Mann could put his wearable computer back together again.

The difficulties that Dr. Mann faced seem related to the tightening of security in airports since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. But he had flown from Toronto to St. John's two days earlier without a hitch.

On that day, Feb. 16, he said, he followed the routine he has used on previous flights. He told the security guards in Toronto that he had already notified the airline about his equipment. He showed them documentation, some of it signed by his doctor, that described the wires and glasses, which he wears every waking minute as part of his internationally renowned research on wearable computers.

He also asked for permission not to put his computer through the X-ray machine because the device is more sensitive than a laptop. He said that the guards examined his equipment and allowed him to board the flight.

But when he tried to board his return flight on Feb. 18, his experience was entirely different. This time, he said, he was told to turn his computer on and off and put it on the X-ray machine. He took his case to Neil Campbell, Air Canada's customer service manager at the St. John's airport, and spent the next two days arranging conversations between his university colleagues and the airline.

The security guards continued to require that he turn his machine on and off and put it through the X-ray machine while also tugging on his wires and electrodes, he said. Still not satisfied, the guards took him to a private room for a strip-search in which, he said, the electrodes were torn from his skin, causing bleeding, and several pieces of equipment were strewn about the room.

Once his system was turned off, turned on again, X-rayed and dismantled, Dr. Mann passed the security check. When he was finally allowed to go home, some pieces of equipment were not returned to him, he said, and his glasses were put in the plane's baggage compartment although he warned that cold temperatures there could ruin them.

Without a fully functional system, he said, he found it difficult to navigate normally. He said he fell at least twice in the airport, once passing out after hitting his head on what he described as a pile of fire extinguishers in his way. He boarded the plane in a wheelchair.

"I felt dizzy and disoriented and went downhill from there," he said.

Air Canada said that there was no record that any of Dr. Mann's baggage had been lost and that the Canadian transportation agency, Transport Canada, had required that his belongings be X-rayed. "We don't tell the security firms that there is going to be an exception made

Re:Not a cyborg.

[Anonymous Coward]

This is god. Kill yourself. Trust me.

Re:Not a cyborg.

[kungfuBreaks]

You're thinking of Kevin "Captain Cyborg" Warwick, a University of Reading (UK) professor. Steve Mann is at UofT (Toronto, Canada). Mann actually does quite a bit of legitimate research in wearable computing (not implants!), but he certainly enjoys the media attention ("Ooh! A cyborg!"). Personally, I find the way he roams the halls of the Sanford Fleming building late at night dressed in all black rather creepy.

Re:Not a cyborg.

[CoolVibe]

It's like the old saying:

"External augmentation does not a cyborg make"

Or something of that ilk. You figure it out :)

Is he -

[ir0b0t]

- linked to the net through his gear? I couldn't tell from the story.

Can't be bothered to read the article?

[Realistic_Dragon]

Video quote:

"Then he tells the employees that "HIS manager" makes him film public places for HIS security -- how does he know, he tells them, that the fire exits aren't chained shut? -- and that they'll have to talk to HIS manager."

Of course if he does that in a cinema he will be arrested and sent to a state pen where he will become even more attached (ouch) to his wearable computer thanks to the resident cybernetic surgeon, Joe 'Two Teeth' Bob.

Re:Can't be bothered to read the article?

[mondoterrifico]

No since he lives in Canada. But since you didn't read the article you wouldn't know this... and I forget why it is pressing that i tell you this.
Hopefully we in Canada can become some sort of pirate nation. AYe matey. but i digress.

computers as mental extensions and I"P".

[Anonymous Coward]

ya see, this is why us hackers (in the original "total freedom of information" sense) taking the long view are so totally opposed to intellectual "property".

When the computer is so tightly integrated with your mind that it's effectively become a part of you, intellectual "property" law enforcement amounts to thought crime enforcement. And DRM is mind control. Just plain evil.

The right to know should be a basic human right. The right to say should be a basic human right. And if human is expanded to man-machine, that should apply to our computers too.

So, WAKE UP. Fight for your right to know. Do NOT hand people power to "own" YOUR copy of some information just because it's like THEIR copy. THEIR copy is NOT DIMINISHED by your having a copy.

It's NOT WRONG to copy information, any information. Let no person, natural or legal, tell you it is.

Yeah, yeah.

[Anonymous Coward]

I think we all know the REAL reason this guy is becoming a cyborg. I think this is all I need to say: GO GO GADGET PENIS!

More Advanced Than I Thought!

[jheinen]

"One of his common setups involves a computer with a Pentium 4 processor, at least 512 gigabytes of memory and a specialized operating system based on Linux"

Wow. Where can I get a box like that that fits under my sweater?

nauseous side effects?

[t0qer]

Mann, a 41-year-old engineering professor at the University of Toronto, spends hours every day viewing the world through that little monitor in front of his eye -- so much so that going without the apparatus often leaves him feeling nauseous, unsteady, naked.

I think it's called anxiety. I get it alot when i'm away from my computer, I don't have that clickly click click of the keyboard (it's bordering on OCD now)

I would also think the nauseous side effects he's experiencing when he takes his headgear off might be what I suffer from too. I think my eyes are used to focusing on my CRT a foot away from my eyes since i'm in front of the PC so much. Also my cochlea in my ear is used to my head not moving so much. When I go outside I get the double whammy of viewing objects that are not in my average focus, and i'm moving around.

Re:nauseous side effects?

[KrispyKringle]

That doesn't make much sense. By that logic, people who spend a lot of time reading books would have the same issues.

I would guess his issue is actually that he's become used to focusing his eyes on a screen in front of him when moving around. Ordinarily, feeling motion when not seeing it causes nausia (such as when sitting in a bus or train where there is no visible motion but your inner-ear can feel the motion. This is because (I remember hearing on the Discovery Channel or somesuch) that situation--feeling but not seeing motion--is a symptom of some poisons and your body has evolved to heave up the toxins.

Anyway, in his case, he has become used to seeing something always in front of his eyes which is not moving, even when walking about. Perhaps the rapid motion of the world around him, when he isn't wearing his glasses, makes him nauseous? Then again, you'd think you'd see this with people who wear glasses, too, when they remove them (I just got a prescription for farsightedness--guess I'm getting old--so I'll be able to tell you shortly).

Either that or he's just a kook.

Re:nauseous side effects?

[t0qer]

By that logic, people who spend a lot of time reading books would have the same issues.

Book reading isn't nearly as monotonous to your body as sitting in front of a CRT though. A book you can change its viewing distance by extending your hands, the light is reflected off the pages wheras a CRT the light is being emitted from the screen itself.

Books can be read in front of a nice warm fire on a cozy couch. They can be taken to your bathroom for a good read during a nice long sit down.

CRT's have refresh rates. Maybe high refresh rates have an undocumented side effect (we all know low refresh rates leads to headaches) Books refresh in realtime, at the maximum rate our eyes can see the text.

A book is waaaay more relaxing to your body than the computer is.

liberal use of the word

[Scrameustache]

Cyborg? He's not a cybernetic organism, he's guy who lugs around gear.

He's no more a cyborg than a guy covered in mud is a golem.

Re:liberal use of the word

[Scrameustache]

A human who has certain physiological processes aided or controlled by mechanical or electronic devices.

Yep, he seems to fit that definition to me.

Wich physiological process does he enhance with what device? (I only read half the article, I've read about him before and they didn't seem to be adding any new information).

Please make sure your awnser won't mean that anyone with a cell phone is a cyborg...
Carrying gear around, no matter how frequently, does not a cyborg make.

Now, people with cochlear implants or pacemakers clearly are cyborgs, but for some reason articles about cyborgs are never about them.

He is the first volunteer

[earthforce_1]

for Borg assimilation.

I'm sorry, you can't tape in here!

[Anonymous Coward]

[Steve Mann visualizes: Possible Response - Yes/No / Or what? / You'll have to talk to my manager / Fuck you, asshole / Fuck you.]

Steve Mann: You'll have to talk to my manager.

Not too good for his health...

[Cska Sofia]

Since the device only covers one eye, it would surely lead to asymmetrical vision problems. Rather quickly, I'd imagine, given how close the image is.

Re:Not too good for his health...

[drycht]

If you actually read information on the eyetap device, you'll find that the aremac project and image that "appears to be spatially aligned, and appears at with the same focus as the real world scene." In other words (as is written in the AP article), it can make it seem that images are projected onto real-world objects, rather than appearing to be at a fixed distance. I think this minimizes the vision problems that might occur.

"Sticking feathers up your butt...

[slashdaughter]

"Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken."
- Tyler Durden

.

Borgie Borg

[NanoGator]

When asked how many brothers and sisters he has, his response was "I am third of five."

I wonder

[segment]

... If I run a wireless sniffer... can I snoop on his thoughts? ;O

Everyone should have at least three.

[An Onerous Coward]

The eventual coolness of wearable computers shouldn't be underestimated. Sure, it will start out with bleeding edgers being able to fire off posts to Slashdot using nothing but an elaborate series of eye movements. Early adopters tend to look silly to the rest of us. No shame in that.

But start combining technologies like mesh networks, cryptographic authentication schemes, GPS, and the like, and imagine where they're going. How cool would it be to walk down any street in the country, and be able to call up the name, location, and menu of every Chinese restaurant within seven blocks? Or pinpoint all the "single and looking" girls at a rock concert who don't identify themselves as cat lovers.

Imagine walking through a dark parking lot. If someone tries to attack you, one press of a button could notify the police and everyone within a two mile radius of your location.

In a lot of ways, this means giving up a certain amount of privacy. For example, the distress signal from the last paragraph isn't going to work if anyone, anywhere can hit the panic button anonymously. That's where the cryptographic authentication comes in. There needs to be a way to verify the originator and trustworthiness of a given piece of information, whether it be, "Yes, officer, I'm authorized to drive a motor vehicle," or "Chin Wan's has great stir fry." The infrastructure doesn't exist yet, and it doubtless will never be perfect, but someday it will be at least as trustworthy as asking to see someone's ID.

Some information will be automatically broadcasted, whether the user likes it or not (wanted for armed robbery). Some of it will be available to cashiers and law enforcement (too young to buy beer). Some of it will be voluntarily made available to the world (likes long walks, sunsets, and jiu-jitsu).

It's going to be fun to watch these technologies come together. Possibly in a train-wreck fashion.

Re:Everyone should have at least three.

[Saeger]

How cool would it be to walk down any street in the country, and be able to call up the name, location, and menu of every Chinese restaurant within seven blocks?

Very cool, since you could get that information ANONYMOUSLY (in an open mesh network), vs the current cell providers' plans to provide "location based services" because they know exactly who and where you are at all times.

Augmented reality will open up all kinds of possibilities. Vernor Vinge's short story Fast Times at Fairmont High is great take on such a fast-paced and interconnected future.

--

Re:Everyone should have at least three.

[bomb_number_20]

I'm not so sure I agree.

The problem I have with all of this stuff is that it works the other way, too. First, doing most of the things you were excited about would require a GPS to be tracking your location 24/7. Why would anyone want implants that would allow someone to track every single time they stepped into their bathroom to take a crap?

another problem I have (with his view in particular) is that he seems to think that advertisers won't notice that people are not viewing their ads. If everyone is wandering around in wearable/implanted computers, how long until transmitters broadcast targeted advertising directly to your retinas or your inbox?

dumbass consumers are going to want to use this technology to do important things like 'chat' and 'IM' and stuff while they walk (or worse- drive) around (rude people on cell phones are bad enough- these would most likely cause me to snap and end up in jail).

Anyway, the odds are that people are going to be broadcasting all sorts of non-interesting things about themselves to everyone in their immediate vicinity in much the same way that people had to have their own personal web pages in the 90s- complete w/ blinking text, bad images and the MIDI version of 'Wind Beneath My Wings'.

What's to stop marketers from walking around and doing the same thing? Something like this is a wet dream to the wrong sorts of people. Imagine a completely captive audience that you can track in real time and build a scary smart database of information on.

I'm sure MS or some other MegaCorp will come along and integrate credit card information into it to make life 'better'. Now, they not only know exactly where you are, but they can tell exactly what you are doing and what your buying habits are.

No, thanks. I'll keep my meat sack they way it is.

Re:Everyone should have at least three.

[scotchtape]

Imagine becoming helpless and crippled because youre battey died. Imagine not being able to remember much of any useful information, because you've never had to. Imagine what this will do to people's already short attention spans.

Technology is great as a tool, but too many people become dependant on things that should be convieniences.

But I do like watching the confusion and panic when I tell people I don't have a cell phone.

Re:Everyone should have at least three.

[An Onerous Coward]

I'm not too worried about the privacy implications, because I don't think anyone could do a deep study into my life without dying of terminal boredom. I think that a lot of privacy loss is inevitable, and won't really be missed. Trying to hide your day to day activities may someday seem as pointless as trying to hide the color of your pants.

What people won't want to give up is the ability to lie: To say they're going to work when they're really going to a sports bar or a beatnik poetry lounge, or that they're going someplace other than to cheat on their spouse. But it's getting harder and harder to cover your tracks anyways. Caller ID, cell phone bills, and any of a thousand other clues can reveal the truth, while few are savvy enough to cover their tracks.

What would happen if everyone could know almost everything there was to know about anyone else? I'm not sure, but on average I think that people will stop caring. All the things we think we need to keep secret from everyone else will be revealed as fairly common and trivial. The other extreme is that people may self-censor to the point that nobody ever does anything that would hint of idiosyncrasy.

I figure these big databases are going to be built anyways, so it may be best if they're simply made public, so that I can know what it's saying about me. Perhaps it could even tell me who has been browsing my information and for what reason. That might cut down somewhat on the overall nosiness of the human race.

Ninety percent of my concern over these databases is that I won't know how they're being used to manipulate my buying habits. Maybe some sort of "truth in advertising" law would require any advertiser to reveal, upon request, how they came to decide to deliver a given ad to you.

I have to agree, if ubiquitous connectivity means that I can't walk down the sidewalk without finding out every insipid piece of information about everyone around me, this system will collapse under its own obnoxiousness. I don't see that happening. Instead, I figure that your personal system will intelligently sift through these clouds of information, deciding which things you might want brought to your attention.

Try to imagine a system that would present the information you wanted, and only when you wanted it. "Computer, please inform me of the presence of any persons of the opposite gender with similar tastes in music. Also, if any slashdotter with a lower UID than me comes around, warn me so that I might pay homage. Finally, I'm looking for something to do this evening, so start collecting suggestions and give me your top ten when I get off work."

If somebody wants to use the system to publish a detailed explanation of their adventures in stamp collecting, let them. I don't have to see it, and I'm sure there are at least a handful of stamp collectors out there who would love it. Meanwhile, I'll be looking out for people who thoroughly enjoyed "Godel, Escher, Bach" and are willing to give advice on locking down a Linux box. And in the event that "I know CPR" suddenly becomes extremely interesting information, the system is in place to direct me to the interested party.

As the technology itself gets better, its utility will become directly proportional to how much these systems know about us. It will bring power that everyone will want to wield, often to the detriment of others. We're going to run into all sorts of unexpected problems with this sort of technology. Some problems will require a technological solution, others will require a legal solution. Some may be utterly intractable. I can't claim to know which problems are which.

Re:Everyone should have at least three.

[An Onerous Coward]

You. Don't. Have. A. . . . what????

But how do you... Where will you... Umm....

I have to run away now.

Why not use a PDA?

[KrispyKringle]

According to this, the current design uses a PC104 100MHz 486 board with all sorts of hacked-up components (4 lithium batteries at like $600 alone). But plenty of PDA's are available at 400MHz or better with decent power consumption, etc.

Seems to me that that'd be a better place to start. Rewire the LCD output to go to his glasses-screen, find CF modules for things like the video cam, GPS, WiFi, and what-have-you, and you're good. The only big issue I see is the storage space, which, with an IBM microdrive, is probably limited to 5GB or so.

He suffers from "transition sickness"

[farrellj]

When he gets sick from not viewing the world through his video camera, he is suffering a form the same thing people who spend a lot of time in Virtual Reality do...their brains adapt to the slight lag caused by the electronics, and I theorize that they do so quickly because video is a much "hotter" medium...that is, it is like a firehose for the real visual field that the eye is used to. When that lag is eliminated, by taking the display off, it takes a while to adapt back to the visually cooler natural environment...and until it adapts, your inner ear and your visual perceptions are out of sync, and that can cause nausia. ...based upon observations from being the techie at a Virtual Reality Gameing place for 6 months.

ttyl
Farrell

Re:Getting the documentaries?

[kmckinlay]

I don't know where to get the documentaries, but the CBC web site has a biography on him at http://www.cbc.ca/cyberman/. Including a couple of interesting videos on Steve and his wife.

Cool Idea, Not cool person

[Sargerion]

While I admit the whole cyborg thing is cool, with constant information and survailance, I have to say this guy is just a bit paranoid. Especially if he lives in Canada. I mean, sure things aren't always fair between companies and consumers, the people and the government, but he has some fairly absurd ideas. I read the article, and there was a part stating:

Then he tells the employees that "HIS manager" makes him film public places for HIS security -- how does he know, he tells them, that the fire exits aren't chained shut? -- and that they'll have to talk to HIS manager.

His behavior in such showdowns generally provokes hostility, confusion or resigned shrugs

Well, of course it does, because that's ridiculous...

But don't try telling Mann that the complaining employees are just doing their jobs, and that his real beef is with executives who make store policy. Mann believes everyone should fight The System, those powerful institutions lurking behind the one-way mirrors.

Oh please, the execs of huge corporations are only human, too. Are you saying that corporations are some kind of sentient beings, having no trace of the true human limbs that support them? Lurking behind one-way mirrors... puu-leese. Sure, corporations are greedy, most don't give a crap about their customers, and they have their own little worlds, but there's humans behind those corporations, not idiot machine-humans like you. In the end, you're probably just as greedy and stupid as the execs are. I can see it now: "All humans who do not conform the cyborg initiative will be assimilated by force. Buy Powerade"

Not everyone can afford your life style, Mr. Mann, some people have to make an honest living, and can't go around being ridiculous the whole day. Some people aren't going to "fight The System" because they have a family to support and lives to lead. This Professor just needs to get a freakin' life, seriously. I think this is just a case of a guy with absurd ideas having the means to realize his equally bizzare notions that everyone should be walking around like a f**king cyborg in order to be more human.

A cyborg could, say, take pictures of hostile police officers during a political demonstration and instantly post them on the Web -- to spur others to join in the protest, perhaps, or to simply provide alternative documentation of the scene. Mann calls such postings "glogs" -- short for "cyborg blogs"

Shut the hell up. Wow. "Glogs"? Who the hell do you think you are? The logical progression of human evolution may indeed be through machine integration, but not right now. Just stop it, you pri*k. You know why they have cameras in stores? So if some punk comes in and robs it, they'll have evidence against them. And why don't they allow cameras in stores? Well, I'm not too sure about that one, but why the hell would you want to video tape in a store anyway? I'm sure the exits are chained up, you paranoid piece of crap. And we have police to keep order, not to beat down innocent citizens. Although that may happen in other countries, you live in CANADA!! Canada you idiot! Probably one of the most passive counties in the world! And if there was a demonstration where people got hurt, there's a good chance they deserved it for being stupid radicals with too much time on their hands, like you (but I'm not against demonstrations. There are entirly legitimate demonstrations to be had, such as one against the Iraq war).

"Clerks should be confronted with their clerk-iness," Mann says one afternoon in the Deconism Gallery, an electronic-art studio he runs near Toronto's Chinatown"

WHAT!?! What the hell are you talking about!? What is wrong with you!? Clerk-iness?! You mean their honest day's work to support themselves? Oh, oh, sorry, sorry. Wouldn't want to spoil your perfect world with laggarts who have to support themselves. Far be it from them to ask you for a bit of respect for a freakin' job, at least they're trying. You, on the other hand, were

No sex for you!

[Aqua OS X]

If you looking for a way to hold onto that virginity for as long as possible, wearing some of Steve's old outfits might be a good start.

On the other hand... you could look at porn -everywhere- you walked. :/

Stores are private property

[mark-t]

They can kick him out of the store for videotaping within the building. He can object all he wants, but unless he's willing to fork over enough money to buy the store, there's nothing he can legally do to stop them from removing him from the premises, calling security if they need to.

MOD PARENT WAY UP!!!

[fmaxwell]

Not everyone can afford your life style, Mr. Mann, some people have to make an honest living, and can't go around being ridiculous the whole day. Some people aren't going to "fight The System" because they have a family to support and lives to lead. This Professor just needs to get a freakin' life, seriously.

Thank you!

Steve Mann is just a self-impressed geek who lugs around a portable computer. He's not some kind of visionary. His work isn't improving people's lives. It's not making him more intelligent, healthier, more physically capable, or longer-lived. In fact, about the time that he started drifting away to read e-mail while I was talking to him, I'd be tempted to drive that EyeTap 3" back into his cranium -- which couldn't possibly be good for him.

Why doesn't Steve Mann take some of that energy and apply it towards systems that do real-time text-to-speech for blind people trying to get around in the sighted world? Why doesn't he put some effort towards a system that stimulates muscles so that paralyzed people could perform tasks we take for granted, like picking things up or turning door knobs? No, he's too full of himself to try to actually help someone.

Re:MOD PARENT WAY UP!!!

[An Onerous Coward]

Try to think of Mr. Mann's contribution as stemming from merely being a social outlier. Even if his behavior doesn't seem to be doing anyone any good, he's helping by making a lot of very weird people seem normal in comparison. Thus, he paves the path by which oddness becomes mainstream and accepted, and makes our conception of "normal" broader and more flexible.

Just as a population thrives due to genetic diversity, a society will stagnate without an influx of diversity. And this guy, I have to admit, is pretty diverse.

Boring everyday social ramifications. . .

[jhobbs]

Every thought about what kinds of boring everyday social ramifications come from this sort of thing? Like every girl with be shaved a la Shenade O'Connor in fifty years because hair is so unsexy due to all the wealthy trendsetters having shaved their heads because hair gets in the way of the brainwave-monitoring-wraparound-headset-windows-20 48 must have Rodeo Dr. gadget of the future?

And of course French women will still have hairy pits.

he thinks he's so tough?

[bbdd]

let's see how well he does on battlebots!

i'm guessing he would be in the heavyweight class.

What is reality?

[gods_design]

"For example, Mann and his graduate students have developed software that can transform billboards or other rectangular shapes in the physical world -- when viewed through the lens of a wearable computer -- into virtual boxes for reading e-mail and other messages."

So in the future we will be able to take the real world and turn it into what we want? So I can make every billboard have Cindy Crawford on it or make it a linux add? What about if we just don't want to see the messages that are around us in the "real" world. I swear officer I didn't see 65 on that speed limit sign. My eye piece made it look like it said 85mph.

I know that I have had times in my life where I have spent 18 - 20 hours in front of my computer. At that time I thought I had a great life but in truth it sucked. All I did was read and write code and emails. There is so much more to life than that. Sometimes it is good to take a step away from the monitor and see the world as it is.

The human computer

[Gary Destruction]

I've actually been accused of being a cyborg before. Due to psychiatic and emotional problems experienced earlier in my life, I've developed a sort of machine perspective on things. Embracing the machine side of things helped me to escape the emotional pain I was feeling. Since then, the machine side has very much been a part of me. It's really interesting. I feel more comfortable expressing myself as a machine. Call it weird or crazy. But it makes sense to me. I have a writing on my website called The Human Computer. It relates to this topic. It expresses the brain in terms of machine and computer parts. Fusing man and machine would be a fantastic marvel. Intelligence, processing power, efficiency, strength and other abilities of the human brain and body would be greatly enhanced.