OK, so a second “gee whiz, I want one!” post in the same week. So sue me – this is exactly the sort of thing I imagined my future would include. [via Tomorrow’sTrends]
Tag Archives: cyberpunk
I dance the body electric
Remember us mentioning that electrically-conductive body paint a little while ago? If so, you might remember thinking “well, OK, but what the hell would you actually use it for?” – I know I did.
Well, here’s your answer – or one of them, anyway. Take one large perspex box covered with hundreds of of little electrical nodes that are linked to some sort of synthesizer engine, and add one painted-up and limber dance-trained young lady with a willingness to experiment and make some noise; add them together, and you’ve got something you might have seen in Buck Rogers… if that series had been more prone to episodes set in strip clubs or techno-artist squat-communes. Observe:
[via PosthumanBlues; apologies to Walt Whitman for the headline]
Cyberpunk style arrives: living jewelry and electronic tattoos
As a person seemingly born with a missing coolness gene, a big part of the appeal of cyberpunk was its visual aesthetic – why stick to a baseline body when you can bolt stuff on to make it look more interesting? And while I’m getting too old to care much about impressing people with the way I look, it’s fun to see those technofashions slowly seeping out from the pages of much-loved novels and into reality.
Cultured in a lab, this biological jewelry is made of epithelia cells which grow to create an artificial skin. The cells are grown into custom designed forms, controlled by the artist. The cells are incubated for a period of time, following which they are stained with a custom dye. The skin is then visibly sealed into a wearable object. The process in creating these pieces includes human tissue culturing as well as computer generated form on which the cells are cultured and then transplanted into adaptive jewelry. The jewelry is worn on the body, completing the relationship of biological cells mediated by technology.
Exhibit two: Bare, a skin-safe conductive ink…
… that is applied directly onto the skin allowing the creation of custom electronic circuitry. This innovative material allows users to interact with electronics through gesture, movement, and touch. Bare can be applied with a brush, stamp or spray and is non-toxic and temporary. Application areas include dance, music, computer interfaces, communication and medical devices. Bare is an intuitive and non-invasive technology which will allow users to bridge the gap between electronics and the body.
By the time the children of my contemporaries start choosing their own fashions, there’s going to be some wild stuff to see on the mean streets of style. [EpiSkin story via PosthumanBlues; Bare Conductive Ink via Bruce Sterling]
Brain electrodes: in and out
Following on nicely from Paul’s discussion of direct-to-brain broadband – and Robert Koslover’s comment – here we have news of the first read-write brain electrode from a company called IMEC:
Today’s deep-brain stimulation probes use millimeter-size electrodes. These stimulate, in a highly unfocused way, a large area of the brain and have significant unwanted side effects.
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IMEC’s design and modeling strategy allows developing advanced brain implants consisting of multiple electrodes enabling simultaneous stimulation and recording. This strategy was used to create prototype probes with 10 micrometer-size electrodes and various electrode topologies.
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These new design approaches open up possibilities for more effective stimulation with less side effects, reduced energy consumption due to focusing the stimulation current on the desired brain target, and closed-loop control adapting the stimulation based on the recorded effect.
Presumably the avenue towards the development of devices for direct-to-brain broadband will be through the development of ever more sophisticated products of this kind, possibly travelling via wirehead-style ecstasy generators.
[from this press release from IMEC, via Technovelgy][image from IMEC press release]
Would you sign up for direct-to-brain broadband?
In a “twenty-questions” style interview with author Michael Grant over at The Guardian, I was struck by his answer to the final question:
What piece of technology would you most like to own?
I want a Google chip implanted in my brain. Wire up my cerebrum. I’m perfectly serious. I want all access, all the time.
Now, despite his protestations of seriousness, I rather suspect he’s exaggerating for effect. But even so, I found myself wondering whether I’d go for such a connection myself, if the opportunity arose. Let’s assume for a moment (and not too hypothetically) that such an always-on link could be achieved without surgical intervention – high-powered wearable computing, wireless broadband link, some sort of cyberpunk data-shades assemblage for interface, all that jazz. Is it still as transgressive and extreme an idea if you could just take it all off when ever you chose to? After all, I already spend upwards of ten hours a day connected to the internet*; the technological leap to being able to do so without having to be here at my desk seems like a small skip of convenience from where I’m sitting right now.
Now, imagine that Grant’s implants actually existed – how differently would a person with such capabilities interact with the world, and with other people? Would they have something of the autist or savant about them, or would instantaneous access to the knowledge and conversation of the web enhance their abilities to socialise? What work would they do (or want to do), and what jobs would they be denied?
Sure, these are all established questions that arise from reading cyberpunk literature – but to be kicked into that mode of thinking by a throwaway line in an interview with a YA author? It’s a weird wired world, and no mistake.
[ * – Yes, I know it shows. Be nice. ]