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Give Your Brain A Boost
jdray writes "This story covers research into increasing cognitive function by passing small currents through the frontal cortex. It won't be long before everyone is wearing little battery-operated headbands to work every day. Maybe the'll be the next great fashion statement in singles bars, where increased cognition would be a welcome change."
Maybe we should get some battery operated headbands for Slashdot editors to improve their memory and reduce duplicate posts!
;)
Either that or pass a LARGE current across thier balls each time they post a story without dupe checking
Dupe?
"The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his." - Patton
Here's a brain boost we could really all use.
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
Looks like Timothy pulled another Dupe
One day, this might give new meaning to the phrase "put on your thinking cap!"
If there's one thing about geeks, it's the need to try stuff that sounds like fun. Now running current through my head doesn't sound like fun to ME, but I'm guessing there'll be a few slashdotters for whom that would be just an evening's entertainment.
/. reading.
I trust that the authorities won't link the seemingly-coincidental scattering of accidental self-electrocutions and emergency room visits for forehead burns to overzealous
~
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." -Emerson
Great, as if outsourcing wasn't bad enough, now I have to worry about staying current with brain improvement technology or some dolt with headgear might come along and snatch my job.
...
I as just about to slay the zombie corpse on level ten when I had to stop and replace the battery for my brain juicer. And I thought gameboys where lame.
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
...to meet the guy with a headband full of battery-powered dangling wires on his head and a can of Red Bull in each hand...
"It's a wonderful idea. But it doesn't work." -- Tad Danielewski
With the amount of current required to do this, 1/500th of an amp, why not start instituting it in the office space? A 20% increase in vocabulary performance could be quite beneficial in a number of occupations. This is, of course, that they prove it's not the brain equivalent of slow roasting a turkey.
TFA said this "...fell from favour because of a perceived link to electroconvulsive therapy". Did electro-shocking mentally disturbed people create the insane geniuses of comic book fame? Does the electric chair make prisoners enlightened just before it cooks them? Are there any other great things I can do to myself to get any other cool superpowers?
So, how much is a headband of intellect +1?
Hmm
IMarv
Trusting software vendors is no smarter than trus
Don't get out much do you?
Diminished cognitive ability is what most bars are based upon. Either that or the opportunity to
- act
like an idiot with a plausible excuse / scapegoat.Quite fun actually.
Coffeehouses on the other hand...
"But once she had convinced them that the current was harmless, Iyer says, recruitment was not a problem."
It's an experiment-- she really didn't know that it was going to be harmless-- she hypothesized that it would be. It could just as easily caused permanent cognitive function loss.
Did they take two groups of 50, or did they do all people first with no current, and then with current? Because if it's the second option, the people had time to think about what they were doing and to mentally prepare for it. Poor experiments yield crappy results. What they need to do is get two groups of 1000 people and do one with current, and one without, and analyze the stats to see if it makes a difference.
This reminds me of the now defunct Museum of Questionable Medical devices that used to exist near downtown Minneapolis. They had this thing on the counter with two metal handles. You insert a nickel, and are treated to a soothing electrical shock which is supposed to heal any ailments you may have. I dropped a nickel in, grabbed the handles, and it almost knocked me on my ass. I've been shocked by 120v line voltage before, and it felt identical. The guy behind the counter was laughing his ass off, and he said "you should see some people. It drops them to the floor and they cry."
In any case, if this whole voltage across your head thing works, the current is low enough to where it could probably be done via an implant which wouldn't need to be replaced very often. Of course, now that this came out, it's only a matter of time before we see Darwin candidates using TENS devices and other things to make them smarter. Which might arguably work since they'd only do it once.
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Geeks have brain. Here's what is lacking:
I doubt that we will ever figure out - and I suspect that even if we did figure out we couldn't do much about it
So if you don't look dorky enough with a calculator and 5 ball-pens in your pocket, you can always tape a battery to your forhead.
Were the words they remebered Games, Daisy, Chains, and Laughs?
I guess the long, dull current was the second experiment. When they tried short, sharp, shocks, the subjects wouldn't do the experiment again. Dig it?
With a name like Meenakshi Iyer, does anyone else get the fear that this is some kind of voodoo science from the East?
More energy brain has smarter it is,
evolution of brain limited by amount of energy available,
give brain more energy to make it smarter!
Then when you overclock it with coffe/"other stimulants" it will still have enough current to run. Though it might make you faster, you still void the warranty and manufacturers don't recomend it.
If 1000th of an Amp didn't work and 2000ths of and Amp did work.... Imagine what 3000ths of an Amp would do!
"Persistance is Fertile" - Me. I can quote myself if I want to.