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This article “Scientist probe the use of the tongue” takes an innovative and different approach to providing feedback to humans. Not surpising that this kind of technology came from the military to enhance soldiers in the field. The article states

By routing signals from helmet-mounted cameras, sonar and other equipment through the tongue to the brain, they hope to give elite soldiers superhuman senses similar to owls, snakes and fish.

The article also discusses the use of this technology to aid blind people through doorways and avoid obstacles. This way you would “feel” rather than see your surroundings. The article also mentions that this could be, in the future, rigged up to sonar equipment allowing divers to have similiar abilities as dolphins.

For the curious, this research is being done by Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC).

Update: (Other Sightings)

• The Brain Port, neural tongue interface of the future @ Engadget
• Warriors of the future will ‘taste’ battlefield @ CNN

CNN’s article “Cybernetics - Merging machine and man ” is an interesting look at how society adapts to new technology. I would consider CNN to be fairly mainstream .. and here we are discussing cybernetic implants.

It’s not really a surprise that the first accepted bionics or cybernetics are medical implants. This article mentions the Cochlear implant for hearing and prosthetic limbs for walking. Let’s not forget other technology like Pacemakers for the heart, that society has already gotten used to these as a part of life. The article also mentions BrainGate Neural Interface . From the this article:

“Within the first three days I was able to control the cursor pretty much,” Nagel said. “When I think back on it, it’s kind of a trip to think that my brain signals was controlling a mouse, changing channels on my TV, adjusting the volume, opening e-mails.”

This technology aims to help people who are paralized. However, this kind of functionality would be desired by more than just people with disabilities.

I guess with acceptance, then the posthuman side may evolve. Perhaps we’ll see hearing implants in people who need or want better hearing for their job or some other reason. Elective surgery for things like hip replacements and corneal transplants are common place, most people are probably concerned about pain or the success and not wether it’s “right” to get it done.

Any technology usually goes through cultural acceptance. When mobile phones first came out they were considered the rich idiots posing accessory. Now most people have one to enable quick interactivity (Work, friends, internet, etc). A lot of people also opt in for plastic surgey, dental work and joint (shoulder,knee) reconstructions. As the first article mentions, more people will utilise technology to fix and even enhance their bodies.

So the acceptance of merging man and machine will be slow enough, driven by medical needs, but it is a blurry line and I am curious to see where these implants and augmentations will lead.

I finished reading Idoru, the second book in “The Bridge Triology”. As a second read, it’s better than I remember it. This is Gibson’s near future world with the normal grit, technology, societal observations and information convergance you would expect.

Quick plot summary:

Laney, an information analyst, is hired to find patterns in the data of a rock star, Rez, who is intent on marrying a Japanese Pop Idol software construct known as Idoru. Meanwhile, Chia, a 14 year old member of the Global Rez fan club is sent to Japan to investigate the rumours. One tabloid style media company is trying to unravel and reveal the truth, while the rock stars team tries to subdue it.

In usual Gibson style, separate stories and characters begin to converge and interelate until a nexus point or meaning emerges. This convergance is echoed in the story, as Laney can see these patterns emerging in data such as purchase history, interviews, itineraries and whatever other information sources the corporates can feed him.

Observations:

This book was written and printed pre mass internet adoption in 1996. Interesting to see how he predicted a more near future environment. We see key concepts of ubiquitous network access, Head Mounted Displays, Virtual Gated Communties, Russian Mafia, Big Corporates and emergent AI. Interestingly, “Idoru” like Halo, touches on AI as an emergent from the interaction between Man and Technology.

I enjoyed this book more than “Virtual Light“, the first in the trilogy. It’s well worth the read, but don’t expect hardcore cyberpunk with implants, direct neural interfaces and the like.

Rating: 8/10

I was reading the article Google launches as ‘Valley Song’ in China the other day, and thought sounded a little strange.

So I asked a chinese colleague of mine. He said “Valley Song” has no meaning, in fact, the only similiarity is that the two chinese characters pronunciation is approximately that of “Google”. Looking at the Wikipedia article on Google, they mention it translates to “Song of the Harvest”. So which is it?

My colleague says they are bastardising a translation where none really exists.

It’s obviously difficult to translate a made up word to a foreign language which does not have the same alphabet. I guess those two characters give chinese speakers the best chance of pronouncing “Google”. Although, Google is pretty much a symbal in itself nowadays.

So did the article get it wrong ? Proabably .. the article was focused on chinese censorship and not really the name for the launch.

Interesting that people try to derive meaning where there possibly is none. In my opinion, they were just trying to represent the sound, and that’s it. So maybe they should have just said “Google launches in China ?”