A woman whose epilepsy was greatly improved by an experimental brain implant was devastated when, just two years after getting it, she was forced to have it removed due to the company that made it going bankrupt.
As the MIT Technology Review reports, an Australian woman named Rita Leggett who received an experimental seizure-tracking brain-computer interface (BCI) implant from the now-defunct company Neuravista in 2010 has become a stark example not only of the ways neurotech can help people, but also of the trauma of losing access to them when experiments end or companies go under.
She and her husband attempted to fight the demand, attempting to buy the implant outright…
It was compulsory brain surgery for a repo.
In other words the company interests superceded the patient’s
This is the sort of inciting incident that triggers cyberpunk dystopian adventures that conclude in a blaze of electrical grid collapses, warehouse explosions and mass spiritual awakening. Then the protagonist moves to Amsterdam.
It was compulsory brain surgery for a repo. … This is the sort of inciting incident that triggers cyberpunk dystopian adventures
That was my first thought as well. Glad to see it posted, because it’s sort of a niche cult classic.
Fingers crossed this woman doesn’t end up with a Zydrate addiction. It comes in a little glass vial, you know.