I was cruising for something and found this article
that correlated with your Borg Cat, the technology has
lots of prosthetic possiblities but can easily be
modified for weirdness;
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.04/desire.to.be.wired.html?pg=1&topic=
Computer network and hacker slang is filled with
references to "being wired" or "jacking in" (to a
computer network), "wetware" (the brain), and "meat"
(the body).
Recently, Dr. Hambrecht and fellow researchers at the
National Institutes of Health (NIH) implanted a
38-electrode array into the visual cortex of a blind
woman's brain. She was able to see simple light
patterns and to make out crude letters when the
electrodes were stimulated.
Richard Alan Normann, professor of bioengineering at
the University of Utah, has been developing similar
"artificial eyes" that would use denser phosphene
arrays (100 electrodes).
The long-range goal of his research is the development
of vision hardware that "will consist of a miniature
video camera mounted on a pair of sunglasses, signal
processing electronics, a transdermal connector to
pass across the skin, and an array of microelectrodes
permanently implanted in the visual cortex."
Perhaps more within the realm of science fiction than
science fact, "neurohackers" are the new
do-it-yourself brain tinkerers who have decided to
take matters into their own heads.
"There is quite an underground of neurohackers beaming
just about every type of field imaginable into their
heads to stimulate certain neurological structures
(usually the pleasure centers )," a neurohacker wrote
to me via e-mail. Several of these basement
experimenters were willing to talk.
Meet Zorn. I got his name (which has been changed)
from another neurohacker who told me a wild tale about
a device that Zorn had recently built. "It's got an
electrode ring situated over the pleasure centers of
the brain. I know someone who tried it and he said it
was like having a continuous orgasm."
My God, you mean this guy's invented the Orgasmatron ?
I immediately called Zorn, but at the suggestion of
the other hacker, I only talk to him generally about
basement brain tech.
He seems entirely sane; he's full of cautions. When I
tell him about some of the other neurohacks I've heard
about, he expresses deep concern.
"If these people are going to mess with neuroelectric
or neuromagnetic stimulation, they should build in
more safety devices. There's a tremendous potential
for harm: brain damage." When I ask him what he's been
doing recently, he becomes quiet.
"Well, it's something I'd rather not talk about. It's
a device I built that could very easily be abused."
(Hmmm... My mind flashes with perverse images of
twitching orgasmo-junkies permanently jacked into the
Zorn Device.)
David Cole of the non-profit group AquaThought is
another independent researcher willing to explore the
inside of his own cranium. Over the years, he's been
working on several schemes to transfer EEG patterns
from one person's brain to another. The patterns of
recorded brain waves from the source subject are
amplified many thousands of times and then transferred
to a target subject (in this case, Cole himself).
The first tests on this device, dubbed the Montage
Amplifier, were done using conventional EEG electrodes
placed on the scalp. The lab notes from one of the
first sessions with the Amplifier report that the
target (Cole) experienced visual effects, including a
"hot spot" in the very location where the source
subject's eyes were being illuminated with a
flashlight.
Cole experienced a general state of "nervousness,
alarm, agitation, and flushed face" during the
procedure. The results of these initial experiments
made Cole skittish about attempting others using
electrical stimulation. He has since done several
sessions using deep magnetic stimulation via mounted
solenoids built from conventional iron nails wrapped
with 22-gauge wire. "The results are not as dramatic,
but they are consistent enough to warrant more study,"
he says.
------------------------
--- Juan de la Cruz Barrios <jdelac@infovia.com.ar>
wrote:
> Hello,
> Maybe this is of interest...
>
> Computer uses cat's brain to see
>
> By BBC News Online Science Editor Dr David
Whitehouse
> In what is bound to become a much debated and highly
> controversial experiment, a team of US scientists
> have wired a computer to a cat's brain and created
> videos of what the animal was seeing.
>
> According to a paper published in the Journal of
> Neuroscience, Yang Dan, Garret Stanley and Fei Li
> of the University of California at Berkeley have
> been able to "reconstruct natural scenes with
> recognizable moving objects."
>
> Read the entire article at:
>
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_468000/468857.stm
>
--------------------------------------------------------
>
> Kitty, kitty...........
>
> Regards, Juan.
=====
=================================
Please respond to jdecker@keelynet.com
as I am writing from my work email of
jwdatwork@yahoo.com.........thanks!
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