The Age of the Cyborg is nearly upon us:
The primary goal of technology should be to improve our lives in some way. So far that has seen us embrace computers, the Internet, smartphones and most recently wearable gadgets. However, many are predicting that the future will not see us hold or wear technology, but have it directly implanted into our bodies.
Already, the transhumanism movement is seeing technology implants gain greater acceptance, but many still feel uneasy about the ethics involved when we attempt to improve our bodies artificially. In response to the advances made in body modification technology, we’ve looked at five high-profile examples below.
When I read about the first transhumanists in the 80's I was a little repulsed, but increasingly I'm thinking there are a lot of great reasons to get cybernetic implants, even more so if you're an early adopter. Why wouldn't you want to have abilities that give you an edge, especially if they were invisible to the naked eye? Yes, on the one hand they're inside your body, but on the other hand they're just tools, and humans have always used tools to gain advantage. I could see having an implanted taser for self-defense, or embedded communication technology that can't be confiscated. Farther afield, why not medical implants that can dispense high clotting factors to previously mortal wounds to prevent bleeding out? Or a backup artificial heart that kicks in should your natural heart give out?
What modifications would other Soylentil cyborgs choose?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 27 2015, @03:31PM
The guy ended up with Farrah Fawcett.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Snow on Friday March 27 2015, @03:40PM
I'd replace my feet with nuclear rockets so I could fly around irradiating all the plebs beneath me. I'd also replace my tongue with a dot-matrix printer, for obvious reasons.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Bot on Friday March 27 2015, @03:41PM
Human parts around me? NO WAY!
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by mr_mischief on Friday March 27 2015, @03:42PM
Who wouldn't want to be like the old cartoon hero Marshall BraveStarr? Eyes of the hawk, ears of the wolf, strength of the bear, and speed of the puma?
Seriously, though, great eyesight, great hearing, Bluetooth telepathy, powerful sense of smell, cybernetic control of your TV/computer/cell phone/car (all selectively, of course) would be a great advantage, especially for people whose natural systems don't allow for the usual activities.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mhajicek on Friday March 27 2015, @05:30PM
I'll skip the Bluetooth. Give others an easy avenue for subliminal reprogramming while I sleep? No thanks.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday March 27 2015, @06:20PM
Who do you call for repair when something breaks down?
I think I'll wait for version 2.3.4
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday March 27 2015, @03:43PM
This article does at least recognise that "cyborgs" have been around since at least the first pacemaker was fitted (some would argue all the way back to the invention of spectacles, or further back than that). However it does make the usual mistake of giving airtime to morons who think that getting an RFID chip or similar sewn under their skin in order to operate automatic doors and lights makes them Commander fucking Data. Here's a clue: If the wondertech works just as well in your pocket as it does under your skin, then KEEP IT IN YOUR FUCKING POCKET.
I mean if the only way you can keep from losing your shit is to have it literally surgically attached to your body, then I'm sorry but you are highly unlikely to qualify as the next step in human evolution.
(Score: 3, Funny) by middlemen on Friday March 27 2015, @03:44PM
haha. this proves Dick Cheney is a cyborg.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 27 2015, @03:50PM
He's more machine now, than man. Twisted and evil...
(Score: 4, Funny) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday March 27 2015, @03:50PM
I always thought he was a vampire. Maybe he's both. Cypire? Vamborg?
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday March 27 2015, @07:04PM
I always thought he was a vampire. Maybe he's both. Cypire? Vamborg?
An easy mistake to make with the whole drinking-the-blood-of-the-young thing. Apparently that's just to help his memory, though.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday March 27 2015, @04:17PM
That is a little short-sighted. Surgically implanted devices, especially ones that power themselves with glucose in your blood, would never run out of power as long as you have body fat. Which, for Americans, means forever.
Second, surgically implanted devices are pretty hard to confiscate. If anyone even knows you have them. If you're smart, you'll make sure they are invisible. Element of surprise, and all that.
Not losing them you pooh-poohed, but that's not an unimportant consideration depending on the kinds and numbers of things you want to do. Do you remember to take the 12 different devices you have with you all the time? I know I certainly often forget at least one of them. If you don't, then my hat's off to you and your utilikilt [utilikilts.com] :-)
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday March 27 2015, @04:50PM
That is a little short-sighted. Surgically implanted devices, especially ones that power themselves with glucose in your blood, would never run out of power as long as you have body fat.
Fine. Wake me up when such technology is available. However implanting a battery powered RFID chip under the skin proves absolutely nothing, except that a thin layer of skin doesn't block RF signals. Pretty sure we knew that already.
Which, for Americans, means forever.
Nice. :-)
Second, surgically implanted devices are pretty hard to confiscate. If anyone even knows you have them. If you're smart, you'll make sure they are invisible. Element of surprise, and all that.
I don't doubt that the kind of people who want to confiscate your shit will wise up to such tricks very quickly. They will develop scanners that can identify the items, and clever gizmos to harmlessly extract them.
If you're lucky.
More likely they will take the "security theatre" approach and employ huge, expensive and ineffective scanners (that give you cancer) and then randomly perform messy and very unhygienic improvised surgery on every fourth person that they don't like the look of. Either way, it won't be worth trying to smuggle your wikileaks documents / pr0n through the airport via your brain-to-usb interface.
Do you remember to take the 12 different devices you have with you all the time?
Twelve? What the hell? You must have trouser pockets like wizards' sleeves. I have keys, wallet, phone and that's it. I never forget them and very rarely lose them. If that was too much to remember I could quite conceivably combine the functions of all three into one device if I wanted to. If I wanted to benefit from fat-power I'd probably get an external power port fitted to me, so that I could dock my phone to my body when I want the advantages of being a cyborg, and undock it when I want to upgrade / replace / repair it.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday March 27 2015, @08:10PM
Rise and shine! [extremetech.com]
You're right, that wouldn't hold up the security line at an airport or discourage air travel at all...
Granted, there will be an arms-race aspect to it, but early adopters will gain an edge for a while, and after techniques are developed to mask their presence to scanners, they will again.
Well, speak for yourself. I wear utilikilts.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday March 28 2015, @01:34AM
I don't think I've ever seen a man wearing one of those in public. You live on the west coast, right?
(Score: 1) by Wierd0n3 on Saturday March 28 2015, @03:58AM
tech tv patrick norton used to wear them all the time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZfoyaGsTj8 [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday March 28 2015, @01:01PM
You've never seen a Scot wearing a kilt?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday March 28 2015, @01:52PM
Well, I don't live in Scotland, so no...
Anyway, I'm talking about Utilikilts, not people wearing traditional Scottish dress for some kind of ceremony or other special event, where I probably have seen men wearing kilts in public, and didn't pay much attention because it's no more remarkable than anyone else wearing a special, relevant costume during a special event which calls for it.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Friday March 27 2015, @04:41PM
The way people go on about genetic modification, artificial implants, and other "unnatural" interventions is silly. The Borg of the Star Trek Next Generation series are a good embodiment of those fears. Hands, which are excellent at manipulating the environment, are replaced with metallic needle probes and electronic interfaces which aren't, even with that electricity discharge trick of theirs. There's the exposed tubing that would snag on every protrusion they brush up against, and sinisterly slow, zombie like movement as the least of the messed up behavior they displayed. Not reacting to intruders, even as their fellows are being cut down in droves, is that really sensible?
What isn't appreciated is that in a sense we already are cyborgs. You mentioned eyeglasses and pacemakers, but that's not going nearly far enough. We wear clothes. We've been wearing clothes for hundreds of thousands of years, and it changed us. There is no place on Earth where a white skinned person could survive, outdoors, without ever using clothes. Wherever it is warm enough, there is too much sunlight for such light skin, and the individual who tries it will soon suffer severe sunburn, and wherever levels of sunlight are low enough is too cold. Soon as winter comes, the person will freeze to death without clothes. Cook fires also changed us. Easily digested food allowed our guts to get shorter, and now most people cannot stomach raw meat or other difficult foods. Tool use was another huge change. We don't try to kill large, dangerous animals with our bare hands, we can't do it safely enough to make it worthwhile. We use weapons. The main distinction between tools and cyborg like bodily enhancements is that tools can be put down. All this happened well before civilization existed Now that we've formed civilization, we're adapting to it. Civilization is a more radical change in lifestyle. Consequently, we're changing faster than ever. Now we have artificial knee and hip joints, tooth implants, eyeglasses, hard hats, waders, flash lights, wrist watches, cell phones, books, cars, roads, and so much more.
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday March 27 2015, @05:10PM
The Borg of the Star Trek Next Generation series are a good embodiment of those fears. Hands, which are excellent at manipulating the environment, are replaced with metallic needle probes and electronic interfaces which aren't, even with that electricity discharge trick of theirs. There's the exposed tubing that would snag on every protrusion they brush up against, and sinisterly slow, zombie like movement as the least of the messed up behavior they displayed. Not reacting to intruders, even as their fellows are being cut down in droves, is that really sensible?
Quite. Luckily, the people designing human augmentations won't be taking their inspiration from Star Trek costume designers. Or at least I sincerely hope not.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 27 2015, @06:07PM
Mod parent up. From soylentnews' point of view, I'm probably a warm blob of goo sucking an ethernet cable in it's mouth to post. Got any proof to the contrary ?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by tibman on Friday March 27 2015, @03:45PM
Unfortunately, cutting into the body creates scars and severs nerves. Small "floating" style implants are very doable. But attaching things to bones and so on is not a small surgery. I have a metal plate that is a constant nuisance. Everything functions fine but there is often uncomfortable pressure around it. Especially when working out, doing judo, rock climbing, or anything that actually puts the bones to work. That's just a small piece of metal. That dude with the box stressing his skin must have all sorts of problems. If he ran, would it sling his skin around?
If i could pick an implant it would be something that removed the requirement for sleep. Not exactly a life extension but you'll have a denser life, for sure.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday March 27 2015, @04:20PM
I have an implanted defibrillator I've had since I was a young man because I have an idiosyncratic propensity toward tachycardia in a very rare combination of circumstances. It has electrodes that reach into my heart. I've had it for going on 20 years now and exercise and lift weights all the time without trouble. So if you can now, today, have an implant in your heart that stands up to what I put it through, why is it so hard to imagine others that augment, rather than simply maintain, your life?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by JeanCroix on Friday March 27 2015, @04:20PM
Yeah, that thing looks awkward as all hell. No physical sports for that guy. And of course he needs it to dim the lights and run a bath after a stressful day, because what could possibly be stressful about having a big honking smartphone-sized bulge on your arm?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 27 2015, @04:35PM
Add to that upgrades/replacments. As eventually whatever you stick in your body will need to be swapped out. Even something as simple as a boob job. They need to be switched out every few years. Those dont even DO anything and are purely ornamental...
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday March 28 2015, @01:42AM
I have to concur on the severing nerves thing: I had a small tumor removed from my neck, which left me with a 2"-long incision. It's very hard to notice if you don't know it's there, it just looks like a crease in the skin, but it took over a year for the nerves to finally heal themselves so I didn't have numbness there. It still feels a bit odd (in a way I can't really describe) when I rub that area and where the tumor was.
Humans kinda suck at healing. We're nothing like those lizards that regrow their tails, or those small water-borne creatures in biology class (I can't remember the name now) which you could cut in half and each half would grow into a new creature.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday March 28 2015, @01:20PM
Laparoscopy [wikipedia.org] is the answer to that issue. Minimally invasive, can even be out-patient surgery. It would work pretty well for sensor implantation and such. Of course augmentations that confer a mechanical advantage (stronger limbs, adamantium-laced skeleton, etc) would be much more drastic.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by q.kontinuum on Friday March 27 2015, @03:45PM
Would be interesting to find out, how adaptive the human brain is. Could we adapt to completely new senses, delivering some signal and the brain manages with some training to make sense of it?
A Compass should be easier / more straight-forward: Just stimulate two existing nerves to give a tingling feeling. The difference in intensity marks how far one goes north/south...
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 3, Interesting) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday March 27 2015, @04:02PM
Could we adapt to completely new senses, delivering some signal and the brain manages with some training to make sense of it?
Good point. Compasses have already been done (kind of: http://gizmodo.com/5987257/strap-this-vibrating-compass-to-your-ankle-and-always-know-true-north [gizmodo.com] ) and users report that after a while the brain does treat it like a new sense. Also, blind people learning echolocation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_echolocation) kind of counts, where you are essentially mapping data from one sense to another.
I'd be interested to know if we could learn to drive additional limbs. Does the brain have the capacity to control and co-ordinate an extra arm or two, or a prehensile tail?
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Friday March 27 2015, @04:22PM
I'd be interested to know if we could learn to drive additional limbs.
Monkeys can do it [youtube.com].
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday March 27 2015, @04:47PM
Yeah I caught this article [iamdann.com] a while back and it sounded like after a while the extra sense became second nature.
I too wonder about extra limbs. Dr. Octopus had the right idea. Every time I work on a project I always wish for another set of hands.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Informative) by TheLink on Friday March 27 2015, @04:45PM
Could we adapt to completely new senses, delivering some signal and the brain manages with some training to make sense of it?
Happens often. You see with your brain/mind not merely with your eyes. Have someone write/draw on your back or hand and you might see what I mean.
http://www.livescience.com/39231-humans-can-learn-to-echolocate.html [livescience.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiBeLoB6CKE [youtube.com]
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/326976 [digitaljournal.com]
http://boingboing.net/2012/12/21/acquire-a-transhuman-compass-s.html [boingboing.net]
Lot of this probably works better if you start young (since much of your brain is still growing and not fully there yet).
Then maybe you can add auxiliary inputs/video. But need more progress in this area before that can happen:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/biomedical/bionics/stretchy-flexible-electronics-enable-longlasting-brain-implants [ieee.org]
http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/biomedical/bionics/a-braincomputing-interface-that-lasts-for-weeks [ieee.org]
(Score: 2) by middlemen on Friday March 27 2015, @03:47PM
- I would want a music player fitted into my brain so that whenever i feel like listening to a song that my mind is playing in my head, it actually starts playing to maximize my enjoyment.
Of course, since the mind can store infinite data, the music player will not have to buy music. It will listen to a song on the radio, record it in the brain and just replay that. No licensing, no $0.99 for buying a song on iTunes/whatever.
- Since I am a guy, a vibrator feature for the dick to maximize the woman's enjoyment. A guy can dream !
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday March 27 2015, @03:54PM
Not sure if serious...
- I would want a music player fitted into my brain...It will listen to a song on the radio, record it in the brain and just replay that. No licensing, no $0.99 for buying a song on iTunes/whatever.
I'm pretty sure you just described your own brain. No implants necessary.
since the mind can store infinite data,
Citation needed. Badly.
(Score: 2, Funny) by DECbot on Friday March 27 2015, @04:41PM
I have an issue with the iPod feature in my brain. It often puts the chorus of annoying songs on repeat indefinitely. Currently playing Tequila by The Champs [youtube.com].
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday March 27 2015, @04:54PM
> Currently playing Tequila by The Champs.
Count yourself lucky. My daughter recently discovered Frozen and has been watching it on repeat (she's ill, so it's allowed.) I'm just about ready to to use a screwdriver to perform a hard reset on my BrainPod.
(Score: 3, Touché) by bob_super on Friday March 27 2015, @06:33PM
"recently"? The rest of us have been in Frozen hell for a very long time...
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday March 27 2015, @08:46PM
We deemed it unsuitable for a long while, and finally caved a few weeks ago. As much as I want to hate it, I'm finding it hard to find fault with it ( apart from the music, obviously, but that's subjective)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 27 2015, @08:24PM
since the mind can store infinite data,
Citation needed. Badly.
Sorry, I can't remember where I read that.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by jdccdevel on Friday March 27 2015, @09:41PM
There have been cases where people are documented to remember every moment of their entire lives. The condition is called: Hyperthymesia. [wikipedia.org]
If an individual can recall every moment of their life, that counts as "effectively infinite" in my book.
It's interesting that people with the condition are prone to depression, since they can't forget anything bad that happens to them.
It's strange to think that in the cyborg future, the ability to forget might be more important to a persons happiness than perfect recall.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 28 2015, @02:05AM
On a chat show, I saw Marilu Henner (Taxi, Evening Shade) pull up a day's events from years before from memory.
they can't forget anything bad that happens to them
That would seriously suck.
...though those do already seem to be the most persistent sorts of memories.
-- gewg_
(Score: 3, Interesting) by morgauxo on Friday March 27 2015, @04:52PM
"- Since I am a guy, a vibrator feature for the dick to maximize the woman's enjoyment. A guy can dream !"
The implantation surgery would be too likely to sever nerves and decrease sensitivity.
On the other hand, you would feel it too. If the nerves aren't dead you might not last very long. That will not maximize her enjoyment!
I'm thinking something that produces pheremones would be a better feature. It would improve your chances while at the same time it would probably also maximize her enjoyment by ensuring she is all the more in to it.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Joe Desertrat on Friday March 27 2015, @05:13PM
I would want a music player fitted into my brain so that whenever i feel like listening to a song that my mind is playing in my head, it actually starts playing to maximize my enjoyment.
Of course, since the mind can store infinite data, the music player will not have to buy music. It will listen to a song on the radio, record it in the brain and just replay that. No licensing, no $0.99 for buying a song on iTunes/whatever.
Part of the cost of such items will naturally be license fees for the RIAA, MPAA and whichever such organisations have enough clout with governments to purchase the necessary laws. Travel around the world, as part of your customs fee you'll have to purchase temporary licenses for local license groups. Your memory will be purged upon departure, unless you buy a lifetime license.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JeanCroix on Friday March 27 2015, @04:27PM
(Score: 4, Insightful) by morgauxo on Friday March 27 2015, @04:56PM
Until virtually everyone has them. Then society in general will have to re-evaulate the meaning of secrecy.
It does have some negatives regarding privacy but it also makes it harder for states to keep secret the evil things they do. It would make it harder for corporations to keep inventions secret forcing them to rely more on time-limited patents rather than trade secrets. That could help push the benefits of innovation to the people faster.
I think this would be more of a win for humanity than a loss.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JeanCroix on Friday March 27 2015, @05:13PM
(Score: 2) by morgauxo on Tuesday March 31 2015, @07:13PM
Who will that small minority be? Religous groups like the Amish? Or will they somehow offer some benefit to their employees so great that those employees are pretty much willing to not be a part of the rest of society? That will kind of make it obvious who the people with all the secrets are won't it?
Or.. wil they just force people to do their dirty work for them and not allow those people the implants. Can they really trust a slave with their secrets?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 27 2015, @08:21PM
Any implant with transmit/receive or data storage capability will rule someone out from having a government clearance and dealing with any kind of classified work.
As someone who has held a couple of different DoD clearances, I can say that you are incorrect.
Sure some closed areas will be a problem - notably SCIFs. [wikipedia.org] But I am personally aware of a couple of closed areas where secret level work was processed and cellphones were permitted. At first they were prohibited, but it got to the point where everybody had them, so the policies were changed. That isn't to say that every closed area will be OK with it, but policies are set locally so the specifics depend on the particular circumstances and the judgment of the local security people.
(Score: 2, Touché) by cmdrklarg on Friday March 27 2015, @04:28PM
While they are functional, my Mark 1 optics really suck (nearsighted, some red-green colorblindness, strabismus). New cybereyes please!
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 1) by yarp on Friday March 27 2015, @05:33PM
I was thinking along the same lines. I already wear contact lenses and would be happy to upgrade to something with nifty extra features like zooming, infrared vision or laser death rays.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 27 2015, @06:56PM
http://enchroma.com/ [enchroma.com]
What do you think of this? Does it work for you? I saw that last night and thought of at least 4 people I knew would benefit. Probably wildly expense though :(
(Score: 4, Interesting) by GungnirSniper on Friday March 27 2015, @04:47PM
Since so many people die of heart disease, why isn't there a backup heart implant that would either assist injured hearts to pump or fail-over models that would start when the natural heart stops? There's got to be enough room inside the body for it, or even externally for high-risk patients.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Disagree) by Taibhsear on Friday March 27 2015, @06:59PM
You basically just described a pacemaker.
(Score: 3, Informative) by GungnirSniper on Friday March 27 2015, @08:29PM
Pacemakers do not have pumping capability of their own, they merely shock the heart into normalizing its beat. [wikipedia.org]
I'm thinking of something like an aftificial heart [wikipedia.org] that would not require the removal or replacement of the biological heart. This would pump enough blood during and after a heart attack to keep the patient alive until hospital-level medical care can be given. By keeping blood moving and getting oxygen to vital organs would make heart attacks much less lethal among the most susceptible.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by sjames on Friday March 27 2015, @08:26PM
High risk people do get implanted defibrilator/pacemaker combos these days. They don't get backup pumps because usually the sort of heart disease that calls for that doesn't come on suddenly and because the pump itself is a high risk implant. Between infection and sudden fatal bleeding at the implant site and having to be on anti-coagulants, they are a greater risk than all but the most serious heart disease.
(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Friday March 27 2015, @08:36PM
So we thank the early adopters for taking the risks and advancing the technology?
I could see a Mr. Burns type getting one preemptively.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday March 28 2015, @01:37AM
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but you look like you know about this kind of thing. Why is it so hard to make a reliable, long-term artificial heart? In concept, it's simple: it's just a fluid pump. We've been making those since the days of Archimedes I believe. What's so hard about it? Rejection shouldn't be a problem, because it's artificial: something made out of plastic and metal can't be hurt by your immune system. So what am I missing? Of all the organs, it seems like this should be the easiest to make an artificial replacement; all the others involve cellular or chemical processes; this one just moves fluid.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Saturday March 28 2015, @03:16AM
I'm not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV, but there are several problems.
A big one is that typical pumps tend to shred blood cells. That's why the first attempts involved mimicking the action of the heart as closely as possible, for example the famous Jarvic heart that Barney Clark was on. But the design was bulky and so required a large external pneumatic drive unit. But anything external like that leaves a path for infection. Impellers tend to cause severe clotting. The clotting limits the choice of materials the blood contacting parts of the pump can be made out of. Some of that can be (and currently has to be) treated with anti-coagulants, but there's only so much anti-coagulation the patient can stand before they start developing spontaneous internal bleeding.
Heat is another limiting factor. There's only so much heat that can be dumped into the chest cavity before it starts to be a problem itself.
In spite of all of that, a great many advances have been made with Ventricular Assist Devices. Rather than replace the heart they act as a sort of booster pump so that the heart doesn't have to work very hard. The latest ones feature a completely bearing-less design where the impeller is held and turned with a magnetic field. Those are tolerable fairly long term. A pleasant surprise is that sometimes the LVAD rests the heart enough that it actually recovers, eventually allowing the removal of the LVAD with the patient returning to good health. Some patients do freak out because they have no discernible pulse and hear whirring rather than beating in their chest, but it sure beats the alternative,
Immune reaction actually is a problem. If a foreign body can't be broken down and removed, the body wraps it up thoroughly in fibrous tissue to isolate it in a cyst. You can imagine what that would do to a pump's effectiveness.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 28 2015, @01:54AM
the pump itself is a high risk implant
Yeah. Barney Clark is a name that sticks in my head.
He survived 112 days after being the 1st human to get one.
Bill Schroeder, the 2nd guy to get one, lived for a record 620 days. [wikipedia.org]
Trivia: Did you know that ventriloquist Paul Winchell got the 1st patent on an artificial heart?
When you consider how much energy the thing would have to consume continuously, you realize how far away current technology is from an untethered implementation.
...and for the valves in the blood vessels to do their job, you can't have a continuous-pressure thing; it has to pulse.
The organic version Mother Nature came up with is pretty amazing. [google.com]
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by sjames on Saturday March 28 2015, @06:55AM
The parts the news didn't cover very well is that Barney Clark wasn't properly supported by the replacement heart. He suffered significant periods of altered consciousness. We don't know about Schroeder since multiple strokes (probably due to clots) left him in a vegetative state. To be fair, these were early devices and the only chance those patients had left.
OTOH, LVADS have given people years of good quality life and in many cases have allowed their original hearts to recover enough to remove the LVAD. Actually, non-pulsatile LVADS seem to be doing much better to date by a significant margin. That may mean the pulse isn't necessary, that that the lack of a pulse only causes very delayed effects, or that we're so much better at making non-pulsatile devices currently that it outweighs the problems.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Friday March 27 2015, @11:49PM
Why stop with mechanics? Let's move on to the brain. There's now deep brain stimulation, used to treat Parkinson's. Provides regular electrical stimulation to the brain.
(Score: 1) by NowhereMan on Friday March 27 2015, @11:58PM
That takes "male enhancement" to a whole new level
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Saturday March 28 2015, @01:45AM
From TFS: I could see having an implanted taser for self-defense
With the way cops in America are, a better implant would be some sort of shield (maybe a metal mesh) to defend against Tasers.
Even better would be bullet-resistant armor, implanted beneath the skin.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday March 28 2015, @01:58AM
As already known. Current stuff just don't have any security. It has already been demonstrated that pacemakers can be remotely used to kill people. And then people wants more stuff in places they can't remove them or mitigate problems with them?
We could invent small machines with builtin runtime code that can collaborate in huge clusters and by making them small they would be almost transparent to the user. They would even be able to self replicate. Oh wait! nature has already prio-arted my invention - the cell.
Did I mention that nature worked out bugs for a 100 million of years?
Buy it, use it, carry but don't implant it. Considering the current security climate and reliability issues.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 28 2015, @06:25AM
Nearly?
I have a cochlear implant. I'm a cyborg. One of my primary senses is solely granted via technology (and no, it isn't nearly as cool as it seems -- there are multiple failure points).
Feels like the age of cyborg is already here to me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 28 2015, @09:22AM
I find this interesting if somewhat scary. (Fiddling with the spine can paralyze you. Perhaps a non-invasive method could be found.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orgasmatron#Non-fictional_orgasmatron [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 1) by warcques on Saturday March 28 2015, @05:43PM
ne of the above :)))))