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griffin tucker

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electronic implants to control human movement

tiny implants that are powered from kinetic energy, sending electronic impulses to muscles via radio waves or perhaps another method akin with periodic activity in order to control physically what a human does - ie. sleep-walking.

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    May 31 2011: Have year heard of artist STELARC? He has been putting these ideas into practise for decades. Some very interesting (and perhaps disturbing) work.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stelarc
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      Jun 2 2011: I have heard of this artist, albeit a brief 10-minute segment on a television show. He seems interesting, perhaps he would be called a pioneer of bringing human-electronic implants into popularity.

      I may look more into his recent work as it's been awhile since i've caught up with his latest art pieces.
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    May 31 2011: I'm not sure if it was a ted talk or another video I stumbled upon that described bioengineering research, but it described the work being done in Korea. They are implanting a device that can identify brain patterns and link them with specific movements. Over time they create codes that account for certain movements and they can control them. They have controlled flying bugs, rats, and other mammals. This kind of power scares the hell out of me in the wrong hands, but it has potential to give people the ability to walk again or fix other disabilities.

    We may avoid another Steven Hawking story.

    I just don't trust military figures with the power to use it in combat.
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      Jun 2 2011: I have also seen perhaps the same video, where insects are controlled via computers - a contract for the military won by a particular company. i haven't seen it being performed on mammals though - if you could supply me with a few more key-words for me to search for the particular video you are talking about, i would be grateful.

      whether or not the military uses it or not is not of great concern to me but i understand that a lot of individuals and groups dislike the war-application, alas, it is how a lot of great mind-blowing conceptions turn into reality.

      i don't really want to turn this thread into a moral debate on war though.

      such disabilities that it has the potential to help with are definitely walking, even with an amount of brain damage but still the ability to communicate could mean a combination of tools such as from www.starnav.fr for control of such a device.

      i would assume (perhaps assuming too much) that the 'ghost-like' feeling of lost limbs or loss of limb-movement could help identify the particular brain-wave codes for control via the implants of the artificial limbs (see Salim Solaiman's comment) or real limbs, respectively.
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    May 31 2011: What is the idea behind this idea, can you please elaborate a bit more?
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      May 31 2011: my ideas are usually based on control of humans, the idea behind this and most of my ideas is to discuss how such situations in the future can be controlled, and not controlled, and how they should be applied morally.

      this particular idea could be applied to those with spinal damage but still with their legs, arms, and brain in-tact. the brain could control movement via a computer controlled by the participant where he/she can 'sleep-walk' (their mind is awake, but their body is 'asleep') or even in a perfectly healthy person where it could act like steroids to run faster or punch harder etc.

      the down-side is that what if the wrong person gains control of the computer? a virus? what else?
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        May 31 2011: hmmm it's already there basically with artificial limbs.