I think that a possible "change" will be the added ability to connect to remote senses. Say a hawk has a "device" wired into the brain to permit its senses and muscle control to be accessed this way while a human has a "master" device installed. By learning to fly and control his hawk body, the human could "become" the bird. His ability to observe and even act from the air would put him in demand. How the link would be done is a question. Microwaves?

A human who has this remote master control installed and has trained himself to use it would be in great demand. A mole in military situations? A spy fly? A submarine watching whale? An octopus for undersea repair?

We know the military had projects where they used remote viewing to try and get an advantage during war times. What if they managed to discover what allows for that ability, and learned to control that via "controllers" in an office. War simulation games are all the rage for both military and non-military. If they incorporated virtual reality, video gaming, and remote sensing ability, who's to say they couldn't use gamers as the future soldiers, and have robots do the actual battles, controlled by the gamers safely hidden away? Scary thought I know, however quite plausible.

Number one on my list is, of course, evolving the individual into a hive.

I've heard of a device which measures "something"; whatever this "something" is got so high it buried the needle on the guage for days after 9/11. In addition to full photo and EM, a "something" sensor would be very useful.

Reconfigurable tools would be a must to have installed, too.

Some people might find some sort of "conscience" or, heh, "alter-ego" running in the background a good thing. It would be a pseudo-self-aware program running in the background, privvy to all your senses and some of your thoughts, but with a different personality from you, which might offer insights to your decisions, be these insights different takes, admonishing clucks, or open disdain for run-on sentances. Sorry about that, really. This might induce some sort of futuristic multiple-personality-disorder, so be careful.

This is a cross post I made in Radical Cyborgs, but I think it might be applicable to this discussion...

Reflections on sensory experimentation

Sensory Experimentation Somatosensory Extension
Reflections by Todd M Huffman

Some time ago I was involved with a project involving cochlear implant patients. If you are not aware of cochlear implants, they are a medical device that bypasses damaged structures in the inner ear that directly stimulate the auditory nerve, allowing some deaf individuals to learn to hear and interpret sounds and speech. During my time on the project I became fascinated with sensory experience, specifically the ability to gain a completely new sense. Similar research is being performed in the visual system, bypassing a defective eye and allowing the blind to see.

Extending the sensory experience is not a new endeavor; it is done with night vision goggles, hearing aids, binoculars and so on. Yet there is something fundamentally different between a hearing aid and a cochlear implant, the hearing aid is conceived as separate from the body, whereas the implant becomes part of the person both physically and conceptually. An implant also stimulates the senses in ways an exogenous artifact cannot, the stimulus from an implant is perceived as a ‘natural ’extension, rather than by artifact.

Fortunately I possess all of my natural sensory abilities; I am not a candidate for cochlear or visual implants. Also direct neural manipulation, while not outside the bounds of physical law, is simply not an option for me at this time. As an intermediate step in sensory experimentation I have added an implant to extend my somatosensory capabilities, a magnet underneath the pad of one of my fingers.

The magnet is neodymium, coated in gold and then encased in implant grade silicon. It is a cylinder 1/32nd of an inch in diameter and 1/16th of an inch long. It was surgically implanted in the subcutaneous layer of the distal pad of my left ring finger. After a week the site completely healed without complications.

I am now able to perceive magnetic fields in ways not naturally possible. The sensation is different than holding a magnet, as the neurons are stimulated with a higher resolution. With the implant I can detect subtle changes in polarity and strength that I cannot when equipped with a magnet in the conventional manner. Yet the most significant observations have come from another property of implants, their relative permanence to exogenous artifacts.

Being able to perceive magnetic fields has expanded my conscious perception of magnetic fields ‘in the wild ’. In one sensory incident, I was walking out of the library, and I sensed the inductive anti-theft device. I have walked in and out of dozens of libraries hundreds of times, and never once have I thought about the magnetic fields passed through me to prevent me from stealing a book. I have been intellectually aware of the mechanism, but never paid attention until now.

Another time I opened a can of cat food for my girlfriend ’s pets, and I sensed the electric motor running. My hand was about six inches away from the electric can opener, and I was able to sense where the motor was inside of the assembly. Again it brought my attention to a magnetic source that I understood intellectually, but would have otherwise been unaware of. I feel I am one step closer to fully grokking the reality I inhabit.

I have not yet used my newly gained sense for anything significantly useful, but that is not the point. My desire was to expand the way I think about my current senses. The experience of my implant is not nearly as rich as my visual or auditory sensation, but nevertheless after a week it has dramatically changed the way I think about my daily sensory experience.

A small magnet embedded in a finger may seem like a trivial exercise. I find it difficult to explain the significance, somewhat akin to trying to explain to a blind person what it is to see. The problem isn ’t defining the technical characteristics of the visual system, but one of trying to convey what conscious perception of certain wave frequencies does to the way a person conceptualizes the world. In modifying my body I have ever so slightly altered the way I organize the world in my mind.

I eagerly await the day in which I can integrate more elaborate senses into myself. With every passing minute I try to see radiant heat, hear radio waves, and think the thoughts of those that pass by. And by better understanding what I cannot feel, I can fully appreciate what I have now.

------
This is posted at www.vim-vigor.net

For pictures of the magnets and the procedure, www.vim-vigor.net/implant.html

This is a cross post I made in Radical Cyborgs, but I think it might be applicable to this discussion...

Reflections on sensory experimentation

Sensory Experimentation Somatosensory Extension
Reflections by Todd M Huffman

Some time ago I was involved with a project involving cochlear implant patients. If you are not aware of cochlear implants, they are a medical device that bypasses damaged structures in the inner ear that directly stimulate the auditory nerve, allowing some deaf individuals to learn to hear and interpret sounds and speech. During my time on the project I became fascinated with sensory experience, specifically the ability to gain a completely new sense. Similar research is being performed in the visual system, bypassing a defective eye and allowing the blind to see.

Extending the sensory experience is not a new endeavor; it is done with night vision goggles, hearing aids, binoculars and so on. Yet there is something fundamentally different between a hearing aid and a cochlear implant, the hearing aid is conceived as separate from the body, whereas the implant becomes part of the person both physically and conceptually. An implant also stimulates the senses in ways an exogenous artifact cannot, the stimulus from an implant is perceived as a ‘natural ’extension, rather than by artifact.

Fortunately I possess all of my natural sensory abilities; I am not a candidate for cochlear or visual implants. Also direct neural manipulation, while not outside the bounds of physical law, is simply not an option for me at this time. As an intermediate step in sensory experimentation I have added an implant to extend my somatosensory capabilities, a magnet underneath the pad of one of my fingers.

The magnet is neodymium, coated in gold and then encased in implant grade silicon. It is a cylinder 1/32nd of an inch in diameter and 1/16th of an inch long. It was surgically implanted in the subcutaneous layer of the distal pad of my left ring finger. After a week the site completely healed without complications.

I am now able to perceive magnetic fields in ways not naturally possible. The sensation is different than holding a magnet, as the neurons are stimulated with a higher resolution. With the implant I can detect subtle changes in polarity and strength that I cannot when equipped with a magnet in the conventional manner. Yet the most significant observations have come from another property of implants, their relative permanence to exogenous artifacts.

Being able to perceive magnetic fields has expanded my conscious perception of magnetic fields ‘in the wild ’. In one sensory incident, I was walking out of the library, and I sensed the inductive anti-theft device. I have walked in and out of dozens of libraries hundreds of times, and never once have I thought about the magnetic fields passed through me to prevent me from stealing a book. I have been intellectually aware of the mechanism, but never paid attention until now.

Another time I opened a can of cat food for my girlfriend ’s pets, and I sensed the electric motor running. My hand was about six inches away from the electric can opener, and I was able to sense where the motor was inside of the assembly. Again it brought my attention to a magnetic source that I understood intellectually, but would have otherwise been unaware of. I feel I am one step closer to fully grokking the reality I inhabit.

I have not yet used my newly gained sense for anything significantly useful, but that is not the point. My desire was to expand the way I think about my current senses. The experience of my implant is not nearly as rich as my visual or auditory sensation, but nevertheless after a week it has dramatically changed the way I think about my daily sensory experience.

A small magnet embedded in a finger may seem like a trivial exercise. I find it difficult to explain the significance, somewhat akin to trying to explain to a blind person what it is to see. The problem isn ’t defining the technical characteristics of the visual system, but one of trying to convey what conscious perception of certain wave frequencies does to the way a person conceptualizes the world. In modifying my body I have ever so slightly altered the way I organize the world in my mind.

I eagerly await the day in which I can integrate more elaborate senses into myself. With every passing minute I try to see radiant heat, hear radio waves, and think the thoughts of those that pass by. And by better understanding what I cannot feel, I can fully appreciate what I have now.

------
This is posted at www.vim-vigor.net

For pictures of the magnets and the procedure, www.vim-vigor.net/implant.html