This story is a real-life X-File if ever I've seen one. Ex-employee squeals on cryonics lab for being a bunch of hacks... cryonics lab threatens ex-employee's life... Wow. Even the company name, ALCOR, sounds like a place that Mulder would be investigating. I can see him snooping around their warehouse now. He's talking to Scully on his cell phone, wait, he has to be quiet, goons are coming.
I guess this is what it's come to huh? In the face of a shrinking budget, and according to some (probably on the right), with little support from the Obama administration, NASA has gone rogue. No more grandiose Moon or Mars missions, they're just gonna take pot shots at the moon and see what they can scare up. It's kinda like the 2008 Mc Cain/Palin presidential campaign. And how did that work out for ya?
This story on CNN caught my attention today. It shows a guy wearing a funny looking cap that enables him to post on Twitter...directly from his brain. "Look Ma, no hands!". The Brain Computer Interface, or "BCI" is not your typical computer input device. The user wears a stylish red and blue cap, complete with a fashionable wiring harness hanging off the back. It looks like Michael Phelps meets Do-Rags... in the Matrix. This cap contains a series of electrodes which pick up electronic signals from the brain and transmit them to the computer. Now that's some impressive coding.
As this technology progresses, the implications are pretty staggering. The military has long coveted such a capability. It will take the concept of "Unmanned Drone" to a whole new level. Other potential uses for the BCI could range from surgical procedures to space exploration, manufacturing, live broadcasting, and even traffic control. Or reverse the signal and get a "Brain Massage".
One day in the not-so-distant future, some form of BCI will be included with your personal computer. Mac users BCI's will be better, of course. Just make sure you're not thinking about that lunchtime rendezvous with your secretary while the wife is looking. And if you have Turrets syndrome, you'll need to purchase the "Brain Spam Filter" from the BCI App Store.
