We ARE the Borg

[Sindawe]

I've know this has been coming for some time, but today I saw something that tells me its getting closer and closer.  On CNN, they ran a segment about putting silcon chips in peoples heads to let them control a computer.  The test subject is a quadrapalegic and has had the procedure done.  They showed him with a connection to the top of his head and a good sized cable running out to the silicon hardware.  With it, he could control the curser on a screen just by thinking about it, open applications and the like.  He was also able to control a prosthetic arm, opening and closing the mechanical hand just by willing it so.

The future is going to be VERY strange indeed.

[BrokenPaw]

I don't know that the future is going to be any stranger than our present would seem to the people who came before.

We already have technology that people thought of as sci-fi-bordering-on-fantasy only 40 years ago.  And we consider it everyday stuff.  A phone you can put in your pocket?  A computer that you can carry with you that performs at a speed measured in billions of instructions per second?  A walk-in clinic where you can get bad eyesight fixed using Advanced Optical MASER Technology?

Heck, sometimes the gee-whizzery in my car astonishes me, and I've been into computers since I was in the fourth grade, back in the early 80s...

It's not a revolution, it's just evolution at a rate faster than people are prepared for.

-BP

[Nathaniel Firethorn]

Heck, sometimes the gee-whizzery in my car astonishes me, and I've been into computers since I was in the fourth grade, back in the early 80s...

You wouldn't believe the amount of cruft that's under the thin surface of that gee-whizzery, though. I've been deep into it, so I know.

Microsoft wetware? No, thank you VERY much.

- NF

[RadioFreeSeaLab]

I'm all for new technology.  I make my living fixing technology, but I don't think I'll ever be comfortable with a silicon processor in my head.  Or anywhere else in me, for that matter.

[Strings]

well, at least at that point people will be able to claim there's SOMETHING in their heads...

[zahc]

Preparing to brain-dive...

[Harold Tuttle]

yeah, but nobody knows how to make bricks like the english did back in 1750

if we fall off this tech wagon, a whole lot of folke are gonna get bruised

[Felonious Monk/Fignozzle]

Can you build a shelter from branches?  
Got water purification covered?
Can you hunt/gather supplemented with some MRE's or similar? What's edible/poisonous in the woods around your house? Build a stove from a couple of soda cans?
What do you need to survive without going to Wal-Mart, Kroger or Home Depot for 6 months to a year?

I am far from an alarmist, and am admittedly unprepared in some of those areas.
Yet reports are that this avian flu is not an if, but a when it's going to morph to be contagious from human to human.  

At that point, you either have the skills to survive, or maybe there's an organization happy to help you out IF you have the chip embedded in hand or forehead...

YMMV.

[matis]

I'm all for new technology.  I make my living fixing technology, but I don't think I'll ever be comfortable with a silicon processor in my head.  Or anywhere else in me, for that matter.

Doesn't it all depend on how UNCOMFORTABLE you are now?

The guy in the wheelchair gets to be LOTS more comfortable with that chip in his head.

In his place, so would I.



Remember the Intel 486SX?  It was a full 486 except the math circuitry wasn't there (or was crippled).

You paid the extra, you got the math circuitry.


Once lots of people around you have the implants and gain advantage over you thereby, you'll be the "cripple" unless you get one too.


Doesn't faze me.  I'd like to "enhance" my capabilities.



And, anyway, my soon-to-be-wife suggests I get a "politeness" chip implanted as soon as they come out with them.    



I bet it seemed strange to see people wearing spectacles, when they first caught on.



Just musing out loud....




matis



Edited to add:  Fig's post above does remind me of one concern, however.


They're putting more and more black boxes in cars.  Very soon the cars will have devices to allow the cops to disable them at will.  Ergo, no more high-speed chases.

The Brits are installing a system of cameras to track every single car trip taken anytime, anywhere (!!).  Yes, true!  In the land that started the whole freedom thing with the Magna Carta!


So the concern is that the chip that makes me polite (or see in the dark, or store data for immediate access, or whatever), will also disable my ability to run should the authorities want to "talk" to me.  And disable my ability to dissemble should I think the matter is none of their business.

Think that's too far-fetched?  Is the Brit car-journey/camera system?  Is the guy in the wheel-chair moving his prosthetic hand and using Excel simply by willing it so?


As usual, it's a couble-edged sword.

[RadioFreeSeaLab]

They're putting more and more black boxes in cars.  Very soon the cars will have devices to allow the cops to disable them at will.  Ergo, no more high-speed chases.

That's why I like older vehicles.  Once the loan on my 2002 F-150 is paid off, I'm going back to old rides.

[DrAmazon]

A friend of mine is a biologist, studying genetics and evolution in orchids.  He found a study in the literature recently about nematode (simple aquatic worm) evolution.  Nematodes have really short lives so they are good to study so that you can see what happens over many many generations in a reasonable period of time.  

Anyway, two populations of the nematodes were studied.   One population was raised and maintaned with everything they needed to flourish-ample food, good water quality, vitamins and minerals, optimum temperatures and light etc.  The other population was very stressed-barely enough food, sub-optimum temperatures etc.  The worms were sampled at various intervals and their DNA sequences analyzed to see what the mutation rate was and what kinds of mutations were occuring.

At the end it was found that the nematodes that were raised in the abundant environment had a large number of mutations, many of them causing pretty obvious defects.  Mutation rate in the stressed population was quite low.

Lots of hypotheses and theories to draw (and I'm paraphrasing the heck out of the paper), but some of his students paralleled it to the abundance that we have in western society.  I know that people aren't worms, and that extensions from animal studies are dangerous, however considering that the DNA in worms is structually the same as humans (same atoms in same basic arrangement) it's an interesting thing to ponder.

 I know that my "abundance" has certainly kept me from developing the skills that Fig listed earlier, and if my glasses broke and couldn't be replaced I'd be eaten by something pretty quickly (or I'd kill myself in an accident).