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.
On the bright side, she no longer has Johnny Silverhand living in her head and complaining about all her decisions.
The fun thing is that half the time Johnny complains, you gain approval with him anyway. He may bitch about you stopping to save random folks and talk about how it won’t actually change anything, but he still approves deep down. He also approves if you call him on his bullshit, which is a nice change from most RPGs requiring you to be absurdly supportive of your party’s awful decisions to top off that approval meter.
I feel like maybe research on medical implants like this should be done by the state.
So should a lot of research, for public benefit. Medical absolutely, space absolutely.
The problem with that model is no one acquires immoral levels of wealth, which means those that set policy don’t get as large of bribes.
And as a species, our actions have spoken on no uncertain terms, we’d literally rather destroy our only habitat and ourselves then let go of the dream of living like modern Pharoahs on the backs of others.
It got us to the moon.
Then we decided to sell off our society for private profit under the lie that we’d all benefit.
Biggest reason this country has gotten this cartoonishly shitty, why our commons like bridges are literally collapsing.
Public research was slower and more considered, as it didn’t have the very unscientific sole goal of “how do we monetize this half-baked discovery NOW?!” with no other consideration let alone to societal consequences, but publically funded research yielded social benefits we all reaped through the commons. Reckless growth/metastasis for private profit is giving us technologies that make us miserable and that only truly benefit private shareholders at our expense. Plus you know, the whole reverse terraforming our only world against us, again for short term private profit.
OK, good point. Research yes. Somebody still needs to control and manage the things. That concerns me. I’m not imagining a medical /brain implant version of nasa. My problem is when politicians start imposing politics to the situation. I don’t want the governments or private companies dicking around in my brain imposing fad or outrage of the day changes. Standards good, control, not so good.
Did you read it?
She and her husband attempted to fight the demand, attempting to buy the implant outright and, as University of Tasmania ethicist and paper coauthor Frederic Gilbert told the Tech Review, remortgaging their house to do so. They were unsuccessful, and she was the last person to get the Neuravista BCI removed.
Forced? What are the logistics there, what if she runs, and forcefully refuses? Are they going to literally get ppl to hunt her down and drag her to the operation room?
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
Fingers crossed this woman doesn’t end up with a Zydrate addiction. It comes in a little glass vial, you know.
That was my first thought as well. Glad to see it posted, because it’s sort of a niche cult classic.