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Thync, a Wearable That Zaps Your Brain To Calm You Down or Amp You Up
blottsie sends this first-hand report on how it felt to use a wearable device called Thync, which sends small amounts of electricity into your brain for the purpose of either calming you down or making you feel energized.
While the unit I used isn't the finalized physical version, the best way to describe it is as a two-part device, one of which is fasted to the front of the right side of your temple, and one behind your right ear. It's not a helmet, which is what I absolutely assumed it would be. It's relatively discreet sort of dual patch system ... It didn't... hurt. Hurt isn't the right way to describe it. It felt like a tightness; it felt like the patch was trying to crawl across my skin. But — if you can believe this — in a good way. And while Thync was attached to the right side of my head, occasionally I felt 'tingles' pulling and hitting my brain on the left side and in the middle. I was feeling progressively awake and aware. Granted, I had patches stuck to my head sending gentle vibrations to my brain, so that might have been part of my sudden alertness. But still, after 20 minutes of Thync I just felt... better.
If the devices like this really do end up working, they'd be doing what many recreational drugs do today.
I wonder what this would mean for the war on drugs...
Deal with reality - the world as it is - rather than ideality - the world as you would like it to be.
Is this the beginning of our new addiction?
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
Day 35 of insomnia. I only slept for 40 minutes today, with Thync turned up to maximum calming for 6 hours. I still managed to get a few hours of work in with alert enhancement on. Could barely focus. Need more sleep.
Hmmm .... suddenly I'm picturing Louis Wu with his droud attached.
I shall pass on this.
Because I'm sure nobody can actually tell you this is safe and have any science to back it up.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
"Current addiction is the youngest of mankind's sins. At some time in their histories, most of the cultures of human space have seen the habit as a major scourge. It takes users from the labor market and leaves them to die of self-neglect.
Times change. Generations later, these same cultures usually see current addiction as a mixed blessing. Older sins -- alcoholism and drug addiction and compulsive gambling -- cannot compete. People who can be hooked by drugs are happier with the wire. They take longer to die, and they tend not to have children.
It costs almost nothing. An ecstasy peddler can raise the price of the operation, but for what? The user isn't a wirehead until the wire has been embedded in the pleasure center of his brain. Then the peddler has no hold over him, for the user gets his kicks from house current.
And the joy comes pure, with no overtones and no hangover.
-- Larry Niven, "The Ringworld Engineers", 1980
I'm fairly certain that devices that glue to the side of your head and run electrical current through your cranium qualify as "Medical Devices". The whole bit about "not intended to diagnose or treat a health condition" is the sort of loophole that applies to natural supplements, not FDA device regulations.
From the FDA website:
(Among other things) A medical device is "intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or other animals, and which does not achieve any of its primary intended purposes through chemical action within or on the body of man or other animals and which is not dependent upon being metabolized for the achievement of any of its primary intended purposes."
Before this, we referred to wearable devices that did this as "hip flasks".
interesting concept, much bandied about, herded for food, etc.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
I doubt that this device really works. If it does, I will be shocked.
From the FDA website:
(Among other things) A medical device is "intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or other animals, and which does not achieve any of its primary intended purposes through chemical action within or on the body of man or other animals and which is not dependent upon being metabolized for the achievement of any of its primary intended purposes."
At first glance, most winter-wear clothing, the ropes used in 3-legged races, and even police handcuffs fall into this category.
* Winter-wear clothing - it is intended to trap heat, thereby affecting the structure and function of the skin and the body's heat-regulating mechanism.
* Ropes and handcuffs - are intended to temporarily limit or alter the effects of using ones muscles.
So, would the FDA claim that it has the right to regulate these things, even if it chooses not to do so today?
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
There was a recent Radiolab about this general technique, that's totally worth listening to: http://www.radiolab.org/story/...
(It's also a lot better-written than the summary.)
The idea is that by applying DC voltages to different parts of your skull, you can affect how your brain works. The theory is that the current passing across part of your brain changes how your brain learns from mistakes, messing with the pattern-acquisition feedback. In the story, they specifically concentrated on a woman training in a sniper video game, who was having to identify attackers vs. civilians, and how much it changed her ability to do that, but they also discussed a big underground scene of people trying this out at home for other purposes or just to learn about what happens. They were moving the contact patches around and then trying things to see what they were or weren't good at. One guy doing this found a spot that left him largely blind for several hours afterwards, so it's not all roses, but the people trying language acquisition and finding it much easier both to acquire and, later, post-treatment, to recall, new languages, really got me interested.
Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
How do you know it's not a placebo effect, though?
Test it against people with fake brains.
the growth in cynicism and rebellion has not been without cause
No, the mods got it right this time; I was straight-up trolling. However, I was hoping for +5 Funny. It works for me about half the time.
Have a patch that doesn't actually apply voltage, but vibrates or something like that. User still feels like he/she is getting some sort of effect, but there's no brain-zapping involved.