Electric Spectre loves The Matrix (not least because stills from it fit nicely with our colour scheme), and it seems like we’re finally getting closer to being able to plug in and zone out. In the past we’ve reported on Honda’s attempts at mind controlled robots, and quantum computers that can hold all the information in your mind. The only problem being-how do you upload that onformation? Most people not coming with firewire as standard (I say most-there was this one girl…).
Finally however Hagan Baily of Oxfor Uni, working with a group from MIT, may have solved the problem.
Bailey’s group has been working on developing ‘Synthetic cells’, and by utilising cells with thick membranes, they have managed to plug them together and allow ions to flow between them-hey presto: Organic Circuitry!
The implications are pretty enormous, from biological machinery and computers, to the integration of circuitry directly into the body and brain. Finally, a chance to edit these posts inside my own head!
LINK (New Scientist)
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If you were building a mechanical beast, what would it be? The Spectre staff have long dreamed of owning a giant robot wooly mammoth to ride to work on, crushing city bankers beneath our hairy hooves (or whatever it is Mammoths have for feet), perhaps you’d like a ruddy great Dinosaur? Or a terrible Spider? It seems however, that Zoids are not to be, as the best researchers can come up with today is a rat. That’s right, the mouse’s Spiv cousin has been granted metal form today, and also limited AI!
Human Brains, what with all that higher cognitive ability, are a bit too hard to replicate, but Rats have learning abilities on a par with insects, and rather than create an army of unstoppable steel locusts, PsikHarpax, pictured above, is the world’s first learning robot.
‘The rat is the animal that scientists know best, and the structure of its brain is similar to that of humans,’ says Steve Nguyen, a doctoral student at ISIR who created PsikHarpax (The name comes from a mythical Rat-God).
So, a robot who can look for food, avoid danger and navigate autonomously. Not to mention knaw through it’s own wiring and carry some sort of cyber-bubonic plague.
LINK
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First of all, the word “Eyeborg” is a little too close to “Lobot” for my liking, and secondly, this probably sets a pretty freaky precedent, but that hasn’t stopped Toronto resident Rob Spence, who lost an eye three years ago, from pimping his socket out with a hidden camera. Seems filmmaker Spence, 36, thinks we might like to know what life is like through his eyes, although he has promised to seek the permission of anyone filmed before broadcast, so it’s not true lifecasting, but it’s very, very close.
“It is very interesting that my plan has been met with fear and fascination. People find the idea that any part of the body being replaced by a machine is difficult. But when it is the eye, the personal window to the soul, then that is even more difficult.”
Personally I’m waiting to see how long before someone stuffs these things in a celebrity so that warped reality TV fans can literally spend time in someone else’s head.
LINK (Times)
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Now, as you know, dear reader, the staff at Electric Spectre are constantly searching for ways to make ourselves more like Robocop (or at the very least Dick Jones), but it seems our efforts were unnecessary, as good ol mother nature has obligingly provided us with a lovely new disease which is booming right now: Morgellons Syndrome.
This little beauty first rocked up in 2002, but it’s just recently that it’s decided to spread, particularly in developed nations. The symptoms? Wires. That grow in you. That’s right-best check yourself for any lesions that won’t seem to heal up, because you could soon be home to a nest of blue, red and gold wiring! Wiring that apparently has a burning temperature over 1700 degrees, and is, quote “The by-product of a biological organism.”According to Dr Ed Spencer, MD to the mayor of California:
“it has no eukaryotic cells, it has no cell membrane, it is not a parasite, it is not biological, it is a machine.”
A machine that doesn’t match anything in the FBI database, and has been blamed on everything from chemtrails to genetically modified worms.
Electric Spectre has just found it’s very own disease, and it’s about to wetwire itself into half the population of Europe and the US. Kinda kicks the norovirus into a cocked steel helmet doesn’t it?
Check out the link for some cool gory pictures. Then check that scab on your knee for some more.
LINK (Healthmad)
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December 2, 2008 – 1:48 am
If like me, you’re carrying any number of strange maladies, and probably spreading them among friends and neighbours, then best cross the Indonesian province of Papau of your vacation list this month. Put forward by member of parliament Dr Manangsang, a new bill could shortly be seeing those afflicted with HIV being tracked via microchip implants and tattoos.
Not everyone mind. Just the ones that behave in what the government decides is an ‘irresponsible’ manner. (To be fair,there is some sense behind these seemingly draconian measures, with a huge sex trade and poor medical facilities seeing the virus run rampant in the last few years). Not entirely sure disease ridden jungle provinces are the ideal area to experiment with mass tattooing and subcutaneous micro-surgery though.
LINK (Jakarta Post)
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