lifekludger

The Borg is near – internal kludging

My attention was drawn to this article on Brain Implants for Parkinson’s Disease.

Mike says:

Brain Implants for Parkinson’s Disease – so maybe a ‘totally immersive, directly wired, Virtual Reality experience isnt so far away.

I wonder what the LifeKludger will make of all this?

I must admit, this challenges my sensibilities somewhat. My first thought was who will assimilate who?

I’ve rarely thought about crossing that invisible line where technology moves from an external aid to an internal one. Though thinking more about it, I have no qualms personally about a pace-maker, and that piece of internal tehnology has been in use for ages enhancing many people’s lives.

So I consulted my guiding light – the About This Blog page for what Lifekludger is about.

• Is this solving a problem? – I guess so.
• Is it a workaround? – Yep.
• Is this life-enhancing? – That I thought is very subjective. So, I asked a colleague who has early onset Parkinsons. His response was that while it wasn’t his first preference he’d jump at it. And have two of the implants as evidently you need one for each side of the brain. (I wonder if you got one side and not the other if you could thereby enhance some aspect controlled by that side – like increase your creative artistic abilities)

By all means, I’m not the judge as to what a life-enhancing life-kludge looks like to everybody. Each person must judge that for themselves. I merely try to act as a lens to focus attention on these issues. So the Lifekludger needs to expand inwards the kludge-horizon.