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Researchers Push Implanted User Interfaces
MatthewVD writes "A new, user interface-enabled generation of electronics that you wear under your skin could be used for convenience, or even pleasure, rather than medical reasons. Scientists at Autodesk Research in Toronto have implanted electronics with user buttons, pressure sensors and LEDs under the skin of a cadaver's arm and wrapped in artificial skin. The electronics could buzz you when you have an appointment, carry memory cards with data, or connect you in a social network with others wearing electronics."
This sort of reminds me of the movie In Time
Isn't it better to have external gizmos? Electronic thingies tend to break, be obsolete, be hacked, be stolen.
All of the above get a lil' worse when the stuff is right inside you.
All of this without the orwellian aspects taken into account.
'electronics could buzz you when you have an appointment' I'm sure this will be used for only appointments.
For a time...I was tempted by the offer. 0.68 seconds, to be exact. For an android, that is nearly an eternity.
When the foot seeks the place of the head, the line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.
You've got a virus.
What happens to copyrights when you can "record" what you see or hear via implants? Does this mean if you walk into a theater you cannot remember/record what you've just seen or heard?
Who owns the servers that these things connect to? Because that's who will own you.
Yay, looking forward to the operation every two years, to upgrade or repair.... seeing how long it takes for electronics to break these days, or how long hardware/software is supported by the manufacturer.
Neat technology, but the use of cadavers is a little disconcerting.
Now we will have to fight off bluetooth and WiFi enabled zombies in the coming apocalypse.
Luckily for us the Zombies will probably be content to use WEP and 2GHz. No worries!
I am confused now, depending on where they are implanted; could I use a Trojan to stop the spread of trojans?
So, does this mean I can get my own "Like" button now?
I think a recall an 80's sci-fi book called Steel Beach by John Varley with this technology in it. What's interesting to me is that the main character was a journalist who was an early-adopter of tech and had refused to update his skin-deep tech for newer embedded technology, because he had mastered his tech and found the new interface annoying. I identified with the interface curmudgeon in him.
How long until we are encouraged to get "subsidized" implants so we get helpful reminders about "special offers". Then one day I find myself getting offers of dick pills in my sleep by my subsidized implants. I find touch interfaces annoying enough so why on earth would I be implanted with a device that will be out of date in a year? Implants mean being tracked 24/7 and being at the mercy of those making the implants. Already there's talk of companies requiring implants to access facilities. The first time I saw some one had been implanted with a tracking chip I didn't say how wonderful I got the cold sweats. Most people are sheep which means I get swept along with what they'll accept. Great our new computer system at work requires implants so I either agree to it or I get fired or handed a broom. Can't happen? Flown on a plane lately? They practically require DNA. Everyone accepts it because it makes us "safer". Millions of people jump through hoops and give up rights without a shred of proof that it makes us safer and yet they accept it. Before the technology moves forward I want a law banning a requirement to have the implants for any reason. Fine if it's an option but as soon as ANYONE requires you to have it to have a job or access a bank account our freedom is long gone. People can say how cool all they want, the first time a chip in my arm vibrates to tell me I have a new spam e-mail is the moment I dig it out with a dull spoon.
Is the Orwellian aspect where we could have mandatory health care which requires sensors for 'health monitoring' reasons...
"Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet." General James Mattis
Sure, the implants were actually highly advanced prosthetics, but the idea is still the same: the merging of electronic devices with human bodies. So...who's up for some cyborg action? ;P
I have been a captive in America my entire life. Everybody and everything uses customary units instead of metric.
What a stupid idea. Who the hell wants to carry around a cadaver's arm just to use their electronics?
Thank you for sharng..
www.sexyjess.net
I mean what could possibly go wrong?
I once had a boss who had raging and untreated ADHD. Opening up my calendar in the morning felt like emotional abuse. The last straw was when we got new phones with a walkie-talkie feature. I couldn't get twenty consecutive minutes to myself to get anything done without being interrupted by the damn ba-beep and having to respond to whatever popped into his head.
I can imagine a few useful applications of implanted technology, like keeping all your medical records handy. But even those are only acceptable if you have a simple and fool-proof way of stopping someone from activating them when you didn't want them too. The ease of getting away from a gadget is a pretty important feature, but it's one we take for granted because up until now we *haven't* implanted gadgets in our body. We're understandably more focused on making stuff easier to carry than on getting rid of it. The desire to implant technology because of the current inconvenience of carrying devices around is like a guy who is five feet tall wishing he was twelve feet tall. If his wish were granted pretty soon he'd see the advantages of being only five feet tall.
The only really killer app for a technology like this is enslaving people. Justice Louis Brandeis, in his landmark paper on a legal right to privacy, defined it as:
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
So, when is Johnny Mnemonic going to run into trouble at the airport?
Who called these clowns 'scientists'? Seriously, what scientific is about stuffing buttons and other crap into a cadaver? Real scientists, who believe in validity of their research, experiment on themselves.
Just one word explains everything .... Borg.
How long before we see late night commercials informing us that our implants now qualify us as a class to sue the manufacturer (because of cancer, leakage causing poisoning, injury or death)?
All the arguments pro and con for this class of devices have already been explored in science fiction. Here are some of the con arguments:
Just because you can do a thing does not mean you should do such a thing. Where are our ethics and morality; how about common sense? - oh yeah, they went out the window with political correctness.
Why anyone would want to be Borg is ridiculous. Creating an invisible social network with such devices would be a way to discriminate (and therefore plot) against those who don't have a particular designation (mark of the beast comes to mind here).
Imagine the abuse of stimulation of the adrenal gland by such a device or the pleasure centers of the brain - the addictions and mental disorders that could result (Trekkers know that story line). Ultimately such a device in the wrong hands could reward "correct thinking" and punish those who do not conform.
The pro arguments include creating a better human machine (augmenting our abilities) and allowing the "good" amongst us to control and therefore "cure" the "bad" amongst us (see the "correct" thinking bit, above).
With an outside impartial party to identify the "good" and the "bad" then the results would be just as problematic as the social-political spectrum is in the media and government today. Would the "bad" liberals want to be controlled by the "good" conservatives? Or, would the "bad" conservatives... you get the idea. There would be no such thing as an impartial party to identify the good and the bad... scifi plots tell us that even a computer used for this purpose would have the biases of the makers (programmers) built in. Since an all-knowing deity is not available for the task, then having a single person or an oversight committee supply such logic of appropriate use would be an inappropriate action in the opinions of at least half the population as well.
If this comes to human use, I weep for what is left of our humanity.
takes on new meaning.
Carrying out chips could be very useful, but it's also very scary and dangerous. What if we're forced by law to have these things inserted? We could be tracked and monitored continuously in the name of safety from terrorism. Though part of me knows chipping is inevitable: It is too powerful to resist for governments and large corporations.
'For we walk by faith, not by sight.' II Corinthians 5:7
If you haven't read it yet, time to get a free edition of Cory Doctorow's book foretelling exactly what we're talking about here- not so much for originality as for an interesting account of what it would be like to digitally and physically transcend mortality.
Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?
The "Mark of the Beast" is any device , contrivance or means:
1. mandated by one or more organization(s)
2. whether having the monopoly on violence or not
3. that permanently marks or is implanted in a human body
4 for the purposes of continuing a lifestyle where previously was not required
5. by reason originating from or contaminated by the political decision of any such organization(s)
6. with death as the resulting penalty for the rejection thereof.
However, believing in such matters would be grounds for ostracism. This audience by far is composed by individuals whose occupations, worldview and lives are predicated on rejection of the sources from which the above concept originated.
Microsoft has been getting under my skin since 1975.
Have gnu, will travel.
If my brain can instantly re-play sound and video, on demand, from implants, that might be a very cool thing to enhance my hearing aid.
I wonder what it would do to the "right to copy".
With this sort of gadgets, the issue of control becomes even more important than for external gadgets like phones, ipads, net-enabled dishwashers and other appliances.
The reason is that you can't really remove the stuff, it knows where you are and who you are, you can't easily control what it tells the world about you, and you can't easily ignore the inputs it provides. In other words, it provides a very direct window into your physical presence that you may or may not have control over. You can be very certain however that you won't be able to control it with your mind. It will transfer data and commands using radio waves.
Now the question is: will this gadget do what you want, or will it do what somebody else wants. Like e.g. Apple, Google, or Microsoft? Since the gadget will communicate using radio waves (which you can't perceive unless with a special piece of equipment) people outside your body will actually be in as good a position to control the device as you are. If not better.
The essence of how this device will act, depends on its programming. Now, do you see companies falling over each other to make that device Open Source? No? Well, then the device will be closed-source, and your level of control has just taken a backseat to that of whoever built and programmed (or services) the thing.
If that doesn't sound serious to you yet, consider where the money leads. What will make companies that build such stuff more money: giving users who wear this stuff full control, or keeping full control and selling bits and parts of that to whoever pays most (users, commercial entities, security firms, employers, advertising agencies, and all levels of government, from federal agencies to city administrations). My guess is the latter. If only because use of these gadgets as security badges will hinge on the wearer *not* having full control over it.
It doesn't take much imagination to understand that such gadgets present enormous opportunities for abuse.
I believe that this level of integration calls for new legislation. For example privacy and control being enshrined in human rights laws (as the EU are likely to adopt) and/or the constitution. Plain unadorned US law (with its emphasis on protection of whoever can make money off something) I feel is a recipe for abuse with this stuff.
This is already being done covertly under the modern MKULTRA programs as a way to behavior modify people with neurotechnological mind control.
Pretty much shows anyone why this is a BAD idea.
I already got mine. Check out the pPod:
http://sugarmtnfarm.com/the-apple-ppod/
Great little implant.
I commented saying that "doctors at a hospital told me they implanted a brain implant in my head and that I did'ent bother tell them that external devices where better because she already realized it and acknowledged it. it was there for data theft. now i hear voices", i think they just made me schizophrenic. possibly both, but everyone reinforces that its just mental illness and no one couased it.
How long before women realize they can implant a cell phone vibrator motor capsule in their nether regions and trigger it with a cell phone app so that everytime their SO calls, bzzzzz.. that's a hell of a ringtone. On the downside, they might not want to answer the phone and let it keep ringing.
This is where FOSS becomes really, really important. I, for one, will never stick a proprietary device under my skin.
My fundie parents showed me a movie, long ago, concerning the biblical rapture and tribulation. This horrible cheasy film from the 70's called A Thief In the Night , got me to think that when people started wanting to put a computer chip in me, that it would be the Mark of the Beast.
So now I wonder, do large numbers of Christians believe that? Or more generally, would religion present a major hindrance to implementing any system that only used implants?
What are the potential health effects of having implants like these?
The electronics could buzz you when you have an appointment, carry memory cards with data, or connect you in a social network with others wearing electronics.
Is that really the best they could come up with? An alarm clock, a PDF file, or a Like/Share button. Gosh I bet it will also help you save recipes.
Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
Yes because what crazy person says is totally believable.
"user buttons, pressure sensors and LEDs " Why would you want to interface this way? This will obsolete very quickly. Its direct brain interfacing you need. This is when it gets truly useful.
This joke is from a time before bluetooth, and maybe even before cell phones:
A man is at a bar, talking into his hand. After a few minutes he stops, and a second man, who is sitting next to him, asks, "why were you talking into your hand?" To which the first man replies, "oh, I have a phone implanted into my hand." After discussing this wonder of modern technology, the first man excuses himself and heads into the restroom. A couple minutes go by and the second man decides that he needs to use the restroom. He walks in and sees the first man bent over, with his hands against the wall, his pants around his ankles, and a roll of toilet paper shoved in his rectum. The second man yells, "what happened to you?! Were you robbed?!" To which the first man replies, "oh no, I'm just waiting for a fax."
If you didnt feel old enough and outdated by younger models - you will now. My embedded CRT monitor is on the blink.