Bluetooth implants: Why not?
Question: How did the Borg--the not-so-lovable cyborgs in Star Trek--get to be that way?
Answer: it all started with Bluetooth headsets.
I see more and more people walking around with Bluetooth headsets lodged behind their ears every day. Most states are passing hands-free laws for drivers. Even my technophobe wife wants one.
I could be wrong, but I think it's only a matter of time before some enterprising startup comes up with an implantable device.
Not being a biotech guy, I'm not really equipped to judge the biological challenges of such a thing. But on the tech side, the only significant problem I can think of is designing it to be upgradeable so you don't need surgery every time the standard is updated or, God forbid, there's a new standard.
I guess a smart card slot or something similar might do the trick.
As for the demand side of the equation, here's what I'm thinking. Lots of people seem to be willing to go under the knife for elective cosmetic surgery. Who would have thought there'd be so many vain people? I've got to believe there are at least as many folks who are pragmatic, efficient and geeky to the point of undergoing a little snip snip or nip tuck or whatever they call it.
If the device is well-designed, the procedure is relatively safe, and the whole package isn't too pricey, voila, you've got a market.
And that's just the beginning. I can envision an entire line of implantable products, from Bluetooth and Wi-Fi transceivers to language translators and heads up displays. How about DC power plugs? What, you didn't know that people can generate their own electricity? Isn't that what the bad guys did with the entire human race in The Matrix?
Where will it all end? I don't know, maybe combining cosmetic surgery with techno-implants to create human advertisements. How much would it take to turn you into a walking iPhone?
Mark my words: the geeks of today will be the Borgs of tomorrow.
Steve Tobak is managing partner of Invisor Consulting LLC. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
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As for you, Steve Tobak: I, myself am not too sure if you were trying some creative writing here or if you were really serious. As everyone is entitled to their own opinion, writers usually have a little more power than the reader, since they get to dictate what's written. And with that additional power, one needs to write carefully and fully express what he or she is trying to convey in the writing.
I don't think I'd appreciate any type of technology being built into humans like that. As a species, we're exceptionally well built already--why mock our designer (God) by adding more into our bodies?
I'm trying not to get too religious here, and I don't normally, but you could also see some spectators viewing this with a reference to Revelations in the Bible with the description of every man (who isn't saved and left behind in the rapture) being branded with the mark of the devil.
All that aside, I say keep the tech out. There's no need for us to implant ourselves with something so unnatural as this.
As for you, Steve Tobak: I, myself am not too sure if you were trying some creative writing here or if you were really serious. As everyone is entitled to their own opinion, writers usually have a little more power than the reader, since they get to dictate what's written. And with that additional power, one needs to write carefully and fully express what he or she is trying to convey in the writing.
I don't think I'd appreciate any type of technology being built into humans like that. As a species, we're exceptionally well built already--why mock our designer (God) by adding more into our bodies?
I'm trying not to get too religious here, and I don't normally, but you could also see some spectators viewing this with a reference to Revelations in the Bible with the description of every man (who isn't saved and left behind in the rapture) being branded with the mark of the devil.
All that aside, I say keep the tech out. There's no need for us to implant ourselves with something so unnatural as this.
Now we just need to be able to "thought-text" other people and we'll never have to have a face to face conversation again!
I also think it's kind of hilarious (kind of hilarious==mildly amusing) that the sponsored links below are advertising plastic surgery.
"It's not just how we use the technology that concerns us.
We're also concerned about what kind of people we become when we use it."
We are the Borg. Lower your shields and we will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.