Adaptive technology

[bhtooefr]

And I'm not defending it, either, for what it's worth.

[Potato]

I swear I've seen people treating culture as an excuse for things.

If you've ever spent an extended time online, you've seen that. Sad but true, much like the cultures being excused of awful shit.

On the topic, I saw the resident blind kid back in high school using some kinda...Whatchamacallit. Now I can recognize it was some sort of braille display.

[bhtooefr]

[Mirage_GSM]

Is it too much to ask to simply write one explanatory sentence in addition to a youtube link?
I generally don't like to click on any links when I don't know at least vaguely what they are going to be about, but I'm also on mobile and I don't want to use up my bandwidth with youtube links.

[bhtooefr]

Ah, yeah, I should've put something in there.

It was a TED talk about bionic prosthetics, and they demonstrated the much more natural gait (and even running on rocky terrain and dancing) that they enabled.

[Potato]

Bionic limbs...Damn, I want some of those...

[Atario]

That's awesome! They're really getting the tech dialed in. First time I've seen dancing during a TED talk, too…

[Sohtak]

Deus Ex is becoming reality! Imagine if Emi had those things?

On that somewhat un-related note..

[Oddball]

Deus Ex is becoming reality! Imagine if Emi had those things?

On that somewhat un-related note..

... sometimes it feels like this is the only cyborg reference anybody knows how to make.

[brythain]

... sometimes it feels like this is the only cyborg reference anybody knows how to make.

Martin Caidin: we can rebuild him — stronger, better, faster… [LINK]

[Oscar Wildecat]

One bit of adaptive technology that I considering for my tremors is deep brain stimulation, which is -- to put it oversimplified terms -- a type of pacemaker for the brain. I'm still leery of the whole brain surgery idea though, so I still relying on drug therapy for now...

[Atario]

... sometimes it feels like this is the only cyborg reference anybody knows how to make.

Well, there is always this: "I'm a cybernetic organism: living tissue over a metal endoskeleton."

Martin Caidin: we can rebuild him — stronger, better, faster… [LINK]

Ahhh, that takes me back. 70s sci-fi was awesome, even if full of plot holes.

[Broomhead]

Aww, I was just a little to late on the whole cybernetics front.

I'd imagine that Lilly could get some semblance of her vision back, although, full turnaround isn't something I've heard of, and I probably would've if it did. There's a couple vids and tech demos out there claiming it, but they all look hideously expensive and a bit intrusive for my standards. (Cybernetic eye replacement, a Geordi looking visor, and some sorta headset apparently hooking into the nerves or sommat. Not clear on the details.)

Hanako... Ah Hanako... for a lack of a better way to say it, I don't know if such egregiousness is "curable" or even worth curing. Part of her whole shtick is being shy, but that aside, with Hisao, Lilly, and some serious therapy could help her come out of her shell, but don't think it would be possible to turn her into a Misha clone or even a Emi/Shizune talk-a-like. That said, I'm no Freud nor am I Myers Briggs, so feel free to cheer me up by disputing me.

(Hanako Part 2) Burn Scars... I think that I've heard of make-up or cream that could make it look more skin like, but it'd be a long and painful process I imagine, judging by the sex scene with Hanako they hurt if they're under pressure. That, and as Ambivalent (Love the name BTW) said, it would probably make her clothes all gammy, as well as her hair. But I could imagine Hisao and her troweling it on...... (contacts fanfic-writer friend)

Shizune, once again, cybernetics and Geordi visors, don't want to rehash that. I took a trip to Oregon (U.S, Crater Lake area) recently, and met someone around the age of ten who was had something in his ear that apparently let him hear and speak close to someone who had hearing (disclaimer: never broached the topic) except for volume and directional hearing. I also think I've got wind of a Lip-Reading AR program for google-glass type stuff. Would probably be the shelf price for google glass + 10$ at most. (Sorry, can't give Euro or Pound estimates.) That could help them understand speech without (Human [Misha]) translators and maybe even onomatopoeia (It's just so fun to say), but wouldn't help on the speech stuff.

For Emi/Rin cybernetic limbs exist, and range in price from barely affordable to insanely expensive and also have some pretty serious side-effects (having to re-learn how to move your new limbs, must have viable nerve-endings, could cause phantom limb pain, trying to take over the world with a cybernetic army, etc etc.) and would also require surgery, and let's face it, don't look real enough to truly hide the fact you're missing a limb without a Number 3-style shirt/pants combo. (Baggy and larger than the limb sleeves/pantlegs).

Now, as I have pointed out before, a lot of these require nerve endings which can still be used to control and transmit information, which can also lead to interesting adaptations aside from replacement. Sci-fi leads me to believe perhaps drone control, camera mounts, or even Deus Ex-style augments for the humans (think like the blind character from Speaker for the Dead). No idea what the criteria for usable nerve endings entail.

I could probably make brail in metal with a dull knife, an understanding of the language, and a LOT of time. So I can understand why it's so expensive for books, but I'd think plastic signs with a few words or even children's novels shouldn't be too expensive.

Last dreg before I wander off, a single idea or invention is all it takes to revolutionize a field, so there is hope even if this sort of thing is prohibitively expensive now. Also, the more use it gets the faster technology advances in that field, such is the nature of capitalism, so if we get an updraft it may snowball to main-stream. I'm not recommending cutting off your arm to get a cybernetic company booster, just pointing it out. (Of course, if anyone wants to clone Hanako, I get second dibs on the machine. Because then flesh synthesis is available, and I may get into that later. Stem Cells and all. Controversy

[metalangel]

I'd imagine that Lilly could get some semblance of her vision back, although, full turnaround isn't something I've heard of, and I probably would've if it did. There's a couple vids and tech demos out there claiming it, but they all look hideously expensive and a bit intrusive for my standards. (Cybernetic eye replacement, a Geordi looking visor, and some sorta headset apparently hooking into the nerves or sommat. Not clear on the details.)

I pretty sure she's been blind her whole life, there's nothing to 'get back'. I wonder if the circumstances were similar to Stevie Wonder (retinopathy of prematurity)? Therefore, I wonder if any sort of technology would even work, given her brain wouldn't know what to do with the information it was suddenly receiving.

Shizune, once again, cybernetics and Geordi visors, don't want to rehash that. I took a trip to Oregon (U.S, Crater Lake area) recently, and met someone around the age of ten who was had something in his ear that apparently let him hear and speak close to someone who had hearing (disclaimer: never broached the topic) except for volume and directional hearing. I also think I've got wind of a Lip-Reading AR program for google-glass type stuff. Would probably be the shelf price for google glass + 10$ at most. (Sorry, can't give Euro or Pound estimates.) That could help them understand speech without (Human [Misha]) translators and maybe even onomatopoeia (It's just so fun to say), but wouldn't help on the speech stuff.

Sent a pager message to Dr Kutagh, "Dr Kutagh report to 'CIs' battle stations."

We again don't know the circumstances of Shizune's deafness, but the sooner any sort of cochlear implant is made the better in terms of the brain getting used to perceiving and understanding the sounds. Acquired deafness, your brain already knows how. Congenital, though, like I said for Stevie Wonder's blindness, the brain never had this inputs while it was developing so if you leave it too late, the part of the brain that understands speech never gets going.

I won't even get into the huge, controversial side of things so far as whether people who are deaf even want to be able to hear. Google 'audism' if you want to know more.

[Broomhead]

I pretty sure she's been blind her whole life, there's nothing to 'get back'.

Bad wording choice, sorry. Not going to edit it for the sake of making you look smart.

given her brain wouldn't know what to do with the information it was suddenly receiving.

I'm no neurologist, and neither am I a psychologist, but I'd imagine it'd be a little like hearing a new (human) language rather than like a computer reading a new type of file, so it may take some getting used to, but I'm sure either could cope. Brain development ends at the early to mid 20's though, so both girls have a year or three to start the journey, Shizune seems determined enough, and interpreting sight is probably very hard, but it'd be something Lilly would probably enjoy. That said, I have no idea if any of it would work in the given situation for all of the characters which is why I made several disclaimers. (I'm probably sounding defensive, I'm really not. I just enjoy debate.) Again, nerve endings and all of that.

(Also, if they don't want their hearing, I'm not going to force it on them. Everyone has an opinion, and they are entitled to it.)