DailyDirt: Cyborgs All Around Us

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Technology is becoming ever more essential in our daily lives, but as long as the devices we use are still separate things outside of our bodies, we haven't yet fully adapted to technology. However, as technology gets a bit more advanced, it won't seem too strange to start implanting technology in ourselves. If you wear contact lenses, maybe you think you're a pioneer. But there are far more extreme examples, and some folks are really taking it to the next level. If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
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Filed Under: artificial heart, bionic, carmat, cybathlon, cyborgs, hmi, implants, jarvik-7, kevin warwick, prosthetics, steve mann, transhumanism


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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 30 Oct 2014 @ 7:02pm

    dick cheney's heart pump....

    didn't cheney have no pulse because his heart pump just pumped continuously? how did that affect his ability to exert himself...?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    intellectual peon, 30 Oct 2014 @ 7:08pm

    a bit of trivia

    The Jarvik-7's inventor, Robert Jarvik, married famed professional genius Marilyn vos Savant, whose IQ score of 228 (as a young child in the 1950s) is not only a world record, but puts her in the top mega-zillionth percentile of utter smartness. The fact that she's accomplished practically nothing in her life other than radiating her intelligence on humanity is further proof that were we all as smart as Marilyn vos Savant, none of us would have to actually produce anything for a living.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. icon
    That One Guy (profile), 30 Oct 2014 @ 7:52pm

    ... wait, what?

    Cheney has a heart?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 30 Oct 2014 @ 9:46pm

    Back in the 90s I had one Colombian childhood friend that had a battery powered pacemaker whom I used to play soccer with.

    If he's still alive or has lived long enough to make upgrades to prolong his life, I'm unaware of. But I was always impressed by his will to live and to be like everyone else despite the dangers of dying at any moment - Battery failure etc...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 30 Oct 2014 @ 9:52pm

    Re: dick cheney's heart pump....

    The powers of Hell compel him.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 30 Oct 2014 @ 10:23pm

    Re: a bit of trivia

    Intelligence is one of many factors that contributes to our ability to innovate. However, it's 'utter and complete dedication' to ones' goals in life that ultimately brings us to the next phase...

    In fact, many historical figures who have made what our lives our today lived long and hard pitiful lives and often died as a cost.

    In other words, intelligence has nothing to do with a persons ability to conquer the impossible which is why most if not all IQ tests are bogus.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. icon
    Richard (profile), 31 Oct 2014 @ 5:48am

    Re: Re: a bit of trivia

    In other words, intelligence has nothing to do with a persons ability to conquer the impossible which is why most if not all IQ tests are bogus.

    Actually ALL IQ tests ARE bogus for a much simpler reason.

    All that they measure is the correlation between the person setting the test and the person taking it.

    If the person taking the test has a better answer to a question than the person who set it then the score will be lower!

    A real innovator is highly likely to come up with different - sometimes better - answers than the test setter could think of and so will score lower.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. icon
    John Fenderson (profile), 31 Oct 2014 @ 9:01am

    Re: Re: Re: a bit of trivia

    "Actually ALL IQ tests ARE bogus for a much simpler reason."

    What you say is true, but I think there's an even simpler reason that they're all bogus: we can't really define what intelligence actually is, and and you can't meaningfully measure something that you don't understand.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. icon
    Ken Riel (profile), 31 Oct 2014 @ 9:22am

    We have been cyborgs since day one

    Language is technology, cooking is technology, clothing is technology. Tools and techniques of any kind are purposeful extensions of our bodies and/or minds. We are and allways will be 'cyborgs', forever fated to the process and reward of creating a better version of ourselves.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. icon
    John Fenderson (profile), 31 Oct 2014 @ 9:53am

    Re: We have been cyborgs since day one

    You hit the nail on the head here.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. icon
    Jeffrey Nonken (profile), 31 Oct 2014 @ 4:45pm

    Required reading

    Cyborg by Martin Caidin. Classic SF they turned into a TV show. Sorry, two TV shows.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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