dilletante, posts by tag: technology - LiveJournal

prototype system to track falling raindrops and snowflakes in real time, mask car headlights to avoid illuminating them, thereby vastly reducing glare.

apparently vr simulations in which amputees get to act as if they still have their missing limb(s) can cure phantom limb pain.

iraq war drives advances in prosthetics technology

implantable art (and soon, devices) the next big thing in body modification

the juxtaposition of the two articles intrigues me because they present completely different paradigms for mechanical body augmentation-- and both paradigms seem to be advancing. although the artistic paradigm seems like it'll need an increasingly technical medical background unless we see "minority report"'s level of improvement in broad-spectrum antibiotics and idiot-proof medical technology.

it seems to me that cosmetic surgery's a third paradigm. it seems strongly constrained, but i'm not sure i understand its constraints.

according to the new york times, apparently the age of civilian video recording makes it sometimes possible to prove a negative. (in this case, alternately both "no, your honor, i wasn't resisting arrest, and furthermore this officer wasn't even there" and "no, we weren't beating any protestors, in fact the officers were all very polite.")

a few techno-pundits have come out in favor of embracing the panopticon age, so long as everybody gets to be behind the camera too. this is the first real support of that position i've seen.

of course, this is linked from wired, who are biased in that direction already. but i hadn't realized that performance-enhancing elective surgery was quite so well developed already.

sadly short on tech details, but there's an article in the boston globe today about modern prosthetic cyborg limbs.