Claude Lévi-Strauss

Kitts is one of "tomorrow's people," a group whose missing or ruined body parts are being replaced by devices embedded in their nervous systems that respond to commands from their brains. The machines they use are called neural prostheses or--as scientists have become more comfortable with a term made popular by science fiction writers--bionics. Eric Schremp, who has been a quadriplegic since he shattered his neck during a swimming pool dive in 1992, now has an electronic device under his skin that lets him move his fingers to grip a fork. Jo Ann Lewis, a blind woman, can see the shapes of trees with the help of a tiny camera that communicates with her optic nerve. And Tammy Kenny can speak to her 18-month-old son, Aiden, and he can reply, because the boy, born deaf, has 22 electrodes inside his ear that change sounds picked up by a microphone into signals his auditory nerve can understand.

The work is extremely delicate, a series of trials filled with many errors. As scientists have learned that it's possible to link machine and mind, they have also learned how difficult it is to maintain that connection. If the cup atop Kitts's arm shifts just slightly, for instance, she might not be able to close her fingers. Still, bionics represents a big leap forward, enabling researchers to give people back much more of what they've lost than was ever possible before.

"That's really what this work is about: restoration," says Joseph Pancrazio, program director for neural engineering at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. "When a person with a spinal-cord injury can be in a res­taurant, feeding himself, and no one else notices, that is my definition of success.  http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/01/bionics/fischman-text/3

The times  they are achangin folks.There are wonderful things being created today. I mean the blind are seeing, the deaf are hearing and the paralyzed are moving.

I had an anthropology professor who was really worried about the field of Structural Anthropology and the theories of one Claude Levi-Straus.

His stated in the middle of a lecture that he just could not believe that our minds were merely computers with binary software. This was quite a statement for 1971. An age without PC's or Blackberries or Twitters or portable phones or even Snuggles.

ScienceDaily (Oct. 6, 2009) -- New research from the University of Southampton has demonstrated that it is possible for communication from person to person through the power of thought -- with the help of electrodes, a computer and Internet connection.  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091006102637.htm

 

Brain-Computer Interfacing (BCI) can be used for capturing brain signals and translating them into commands that allow humans to control (just by thinking) devices such as computers, robots, rehabilitation technology and virtual reality environments.

This experiment goes a step further and was conducted by Dr Christopher James from the University's Institute of Sound and Vibration Research. The aim was to expand the current limits of this technology and show that brain-to-brain (B2B) communication is possible

While attached to an EEG amplifier, the first person would generate and transmit a series of binary digits, imagining moving their left arm for zero and their right arm for one. The second person was also attached to an EEG amplifier and their PC would pick up the stream of binary digits and flash an LED lamp at two different frequencies, one for zero and the other one for one. The pattern of the flashing LEDs is too subtle to be picked by the second person, but it is picked up by electrodes measuring the visual cortex of the recipient.

The encoded information is then extracted from the brain activity of the second user and the PC can decipher whether a zero or a one was transmitted. This shows true brain-to-brain activity.

You can watch Dr James' BCI experiment at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93p7oDkA5WA&feature=email

How will all this alter our world ethos.

And what effect may it have upon romance:



"011100101000100100101001
101000101010101010101010
110011011111000010100100"
                                                                            

TRANSLATION: I lova you with alla my heart Juliet.

 "1110101010101010100011
 0001110010101010101001
 1111001010010101001010"
                                                                                      

TRANSLATION: You want to do what with my WHAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!

"101010100111110001010101010
1010101000111010000101010100
0010101010111110001010101011"

                                                                             

TRANSLATION:  No, no my love.  Forgiva my dyslexia, for sometimes I mean right instead of left. And is that your left or my left? Oh please, I lovea you with alla my heart.

     

                                                                                                                                                                        "1100101001010100000010111010100
                                                                                     1110101010101010000100101000100
                                                                                    1110100101001000100101010101001"

I

                                                                 

TRANSLATION:  I have more important things on my mind right now. Have to leave and make my appointment for sex-change surgery at noon. TATA!!!

 "201020233011022233

 332103022322000111"                                                                                                                                                                                        

                                                                   " 000101001110010101001010

                                                                     100010100111110010101011

                                                                     010101001001110010100101"

                                                                                                                                                       

TRANSLATION: This just aint gonna work for four legged creatures.