Earth Breaker, a possible reality?

[SqiKy kLeen]

www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn3967

The article summarizes new innovations in technology with machines that are capable of reading thought patterns. They are developing a new wheelchair in which all you merely need is think about where to move, and it goes. It uses a helmet with electrode monitors, so its nothing like brain chip implants or anything.

I posted this here to give a little real-world glimpse at technology similar to what Jack's suit is using that is actually being developed. and what this could entail story wise.

Also, check out this video:

www.consciousmedianetwork.com/members/iwagge.htm

Most of the relevant stuff is at the last half.

[ZaCloud]

Sweeeet! ;D Lots of thought-provoking stuff there. Cool to see bearings on our current reality that can easily lead to our fiction, and vice-versa.

There was something I saw on tv before. While it didn't feed directly off of the brain, but did work by motor nerves on the body. A man lost his arms. At first he could do nearly nothing for himself, then was given arms that could be controlled by controllers on his chin. But this was cumbersome and limited.

So then eventually, pectoral and other nerves were connected to a robotic arm, and by natural motor impulses, he was able to control the arm very well, with impressive precision and speed. So today, he has one arm chin-controlled in case he should the support of a second arm, but his other primary arm moves by his own will.

This, and other mobile technologies being developed, can do a whole lot for our quality of life. There's currently a "suit", pretty much a metal exoskeleton (not all-covering) that works as support for a mobile body. It was developed in Japan in order to help the elderly or weak be able to walk around without so much stress to their joints, or do heavy chores with less needed muscle-power. While it's rather odd (especially if you were to see it ^_^;; ) and still has concerns, it's another step toward the Earth Breaker on more basic grounds. It pretty much accepts physical feedback, and accellerates/amplifies it.

Brain impulses being turned into motor impulses for cybernetics can be used either in giving the paralyzed back their ability to move, or perhaps in extreme cases, putting an otherwise doomed human's head onto a cybernetic body. Pets no longer would have to be "euthanized" from having a broken back.

But of course, there's always the human fear of putting our lives in the hands of "fate" (or in this case, machines), as seems likely in the future. Fears of malfunction or hacking, or suddenly losing the link to the technology around us and being lost. There's good and bad to everything; with each advance we make, a whole spectrum of life as we know it is changed forever, and brings more and more controversy. Thus why future technology fascinates us so much; the possibilities are endless, both good and bad.

Well, that's what sci-fi movies/stories/RPGs are for. Exploring the highs and lows of the fantasy that is nearing reality. ^_^