My bet is you'll take the Brain Chip (i.e. RFID or analogous processor) implantation as the medical benefit to you is life-saving. Hospitals already have monitoring at a distance and this is usually for cardiac or so but medical monitoring long prior to the myocardial infarct (i.e. Doctor for 'heart attack') would have detected the changes leading toward, as in years before. (The sophistication in monitoring capability will inevitably evolve. This is hardly sci-fi.)
You've seen some relatively-young guys vapor lock recently and a famous early one was James Fixx as he was all health. He ran, he was fit, he ate right, everything was right. Heart attack before he was fifty.
Presumably the problems for these guys are congenital and early detection may well have resulted in a surgical repair. While the examples are few, that's only because we just get news of the famous ones. A more generic example is the buildup of cholesterol as that would be detected long before it started blocking arteries.
You want the right to privacy, sure enough, but this chip almost inevitably gives a much greater chance of a long life so what shall you choose. (The current version of the chip doesn't have all this functionality but an intelligent device can't be far behind, as opposed to being a simple locator device with some amount of storage.)
You may want to consider this will give up any aspect of your life. If you're catting around on your wife, that will be readily-evident in the medical record for any given time period suspected of being a dalliance in the field. The only thing it won't give is the phone number of The Other Woman but you're already busted anyway.
My vote: better divorced than dead. Take the chip.
10-point extra credit question: what changes come to society as a result of such monitoring. The behavioral consideration is in getting busted for having an affair but there must be loads of others. I'm leaving out the police state aspect in favor of focus of what's potentially good about it.
Would affairs diminish as a result of the knowledge of a certain bust or would people opt for what is likely a shorter life but free of real or perceived intrusion. Would this force an honesty in relationships as maybe you're not so likely to get married if you know you're a dog.
This chip is potentially more than a medical device as it could be revolutionary in terms of human relationships.
Where it goes to sci-fi is when the Brain Chip becomes more than a complex monitoring device and starts reacting to your 'input' and that goes into a whole Universe of twisted virtuality that is just fascinating to behold. It won't be that long as DARPA is experimenting with these types of devices now.
There's a whole lot of creepy video on YouTube with general aluminum hat themes. Who knows how many, if any, of their claims of bizarre scientific experiments are true. Be warned of a whole lot of aluminum hat if you go that way. There's some novel stuff and it's intriguing in the way of seeing interviews with serial killers or looking at the really strange food other people get at the supermarket. We are defined by the weird as the pretty people are what we look like all waxed-up but the weird is real world. Weird, we understand. It's us.
For weird, America is surprisingly tolerant. There's loads of religious intolerance but strange is alright. If you tell a friend someone is strange then that says the whole story. They really don't care if you're weird so long as you don't get in their faces with it.
Germany has a lot of tolerance for weird but it's got to be a productive weird in making some kind of art or at least something whereas in America a more gratuitous weird is ok. If you tell someone, "Man, that Farmer John, he's trying to raise some purple ducks."
Your friend may say, "Well, that's strange, isn't it."
Unless he's got some interest in purple ducks, that's most likely the end of it as people really don't have a problem with that kind of weird.
Since you've made it past the purple ducks, here's the punchline as how long can it be before the device can not only read your thoughts but transmit them such that other Brain Chips within 'x' radius can receive them.
You've seen some relatively-young guys vapor lock recently and a famous early one was James Fixx as he was all health. He ran, he was fit, he ate right, everything was right. Heart attack before he was fifty.
Presumably the problems for these guys are congenital and early detection may well have resulted in a surgical repair. While the examples are few, that's only because we just get news of the famous ones. A more generic example is the buildup of cholesterol as that would be detected long before it started blocking arteries.
You want the right to privacy, sure enough, but this chip almost inevitably gives a much greater chance of a long life so what shall you choose. (The current version of the chip doesn't have all this functionality but an intelligent device can't be far behind, as opposed to being a simple locator device with some amount of storage.)
You may want to consider this will give up any aspect of your life. If you're catting around on your wife, that will be readily-evident in the medical record for any given time period suspected of being a dalliance in the field. The only thing it won't give is the phone number of The Other Woman but you're already busted anyway.
My vote: better divorced than dead. Take the chip.
10-point extra credit question: what changes come to society as a result of such monitoring. The behavioral consideration is in getting busted for having an affair but there must be loads of others. I'm leaving out the police state aspect in favor of focus of what's potentially good about it.
Would affairs diminish as a result of the knowledge of a certain bust or would people opt for what is likely a shorter life but free of real or perceived intrusion. Would this force an honesty in relationships as maybe you're not so likely to get married if you know you're a dog.
This chip is potentially more than a medical device as it could be revolutionary in terms of human relationships.
Where it goes to sci-fi is when the Brain Chip becomes more than a complex monitoring device and starts reacting to your 'input' and that goes into a whole Universe of twisted virtuality that is just fascinating to behold. It won't be that long as DARPA is experimenting with these types of devices now.
There's a whole lot of creepy video on YouTube with general aluminum hat themes. Who knows how many, if any, of their claims of bizarre scientific experiments are true. Be warned of a whole lot of aluminum hat if you go that way. There's some novel stuff and it's intriguing in the way of seeing interviews with serial killers or looking at the really strange food other people get at the supermarket. We are defined by the weird as the pretty people are what we look like all waxed-up but the weird is real world. Weird, we understand. It's us.
For weird, America is surprisingly tolerant. There's loads of religious intolerance but strange is alright. If you tell a friend someone is strange then that says the whole story. They really don't care if you're weird so long as you don't get in their faces with it.
Germany has a lot of tolerance for weird but it's got to be a productive weird in making some kind of art or at least something whereas in America a more gratuitous weird is ok. If you tell someone, "Man, that Farmer John, he's trying to raise some purple ducks."
Your friend may say, "Well, that's strange, isn't it."
Unless he's got some interest in purple ducks, that's most likely the end of it as people really don't have a problem with that kind of weird.
Since you've made it past the purple ducks, here's the punchline as how long can it be before the device can not only read your thoughts but transmit them such that other Brain Chips within 'x' radius can receive them.
2 comments:
My only comment is on Jim Fixx. I'll steer clear of the Brain Chip concept.
Fixx - while well known for his book - was not the picture of health people today picture. When he took up running, he was a heavy chain smoker and weighed 220 pounds. On top of that, he had a family history of heart problems (his dad died of a heart attack at age 35) and he had a congenitally enlarged heart himself.
I was at the starting line of a race - the annual St. Mary's Feast 10K in Cranston - when his death was announced. Given what real runners already knew about Fixx, we weren't surprised. He was popular with the couch-potato to sudden exerciser set, but dedicated runners were more apt to follow the advice of George Sheehan, not Jim Fixx.
See, I smoked a lot so if I tried to stop it that way then I would have been croaked too. Exercise is bad, very bad.
As evidence, I offer that I haven't exercised (much) since I got out of the Army and, barring some bizarre temporal distortion, I remain older than you, one who has exercised with great fervor. Thus I conclude reefer and indolence are good for you. (I would have myself sliced up as salami if I ever porked out to 220 lbs, tho.)
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