One of SF's longest running ideas and a lot of recent medical advances revolve around "implants", devices implanted in people.

Sure, we've had pacemakers for decades, and cochlear implants for the deaf. Now there's a new eye implant to improve vision in those suffering macular degeneration blindness. So far implants have mostly just been used to help correct problems, but what happens when they make implants that can offer improvements, or new abilities to people?

Just out of idle curiousity, I was wondering what kind of technically plausible, realistic implants people here would like to have if they could.

So, if you could get 'implants' what would they be?

I'll start off with a very, very realistic and plausible one I read about in "the diamond age". A guy in that book had an implant designed to improve his muscles over time by subjecting them to a carefully planned series of stimulations that caused them to twitch is an isometric fashion, essentially giving him the benefits of regular, intense exercise, especially while he slept, resulting in a very quick increase in muscle mass and strength.

Handy gadget, physical fitness without the time and effort. Completely plausible too, in fact they could damn near do those NOW, and I predict they'll become available in 5-10 years.

Didn't I see something like that on an infomercial a couple years back?

Didn't it turn out that it didn't work?

Of course, this is scifi. Anything could be "perfected."

I'd like the whole cybernetic brain bit. Not to hook up the internet, 'cause that's just creepy. More just for memory. It would be so awesome to just remember EVERYTHING the first time you saw it (and just delete the things you'd rather forget).

Not sure it's entirely plasible, though...

V-tags, like in "Transhuman Space"?  Those'd be awesome.

"Lemme look at your engine... [*POP*] Yeah, it's the alternator."

I want a goldfish bowl implanted in my belly. I imagine it would tickle a bit, but I'd get used to it.

-clash

As long as it costs six million dollars and I could run and jump in slow motion I don't care.

Some backup memory cards would be nice. Maybe some 'skill cards' too, like languages, or golf, or Tae Kwon Do.

Oh, and poison dart-shooting fingers, too.

Quote from: Dominus Nox...
I'll start off with a very, very realistic and plausible one I read about in "the diamond age". A guy in that book had an implant designed to improve his muscles over time by subjecting them to a carefully planned series of stimulations that caused them to twitch is an isometric fashion, essentially giving him the benefits of regular, intense exercise, especially while he slept, resulting in a very quick increase in muscle mass and strength.
...

They do that today, with electrodes.
Besides in order to hypertrophy training to be succesfull the training has to be intense and no more than 45 to 60 minutes long, and increase the protein ingestion in your diet to 2-3 grams per kilo of body weight.
So it's going to be a little more dificult than that to get an Ahnold body.

In a futile effort to bring this back on topic, I'd also like a built in calculator and maybe a built in encyclopedia that could automatically look up refs I don't get and query internally.

I'm not sure I want a constant on internet connection in my head, but one I controlled and could shut off would be nice.

Quote from: Dominus NoxIn a futile effort to bring this back on topic, I'd also like a built in calculator and maybe a built in encyclopedia that could automatically look up refs I don't get and query internally.

I'm not sure I want a constant on internet connection in my head, but one I controlled and could shut off would be nice.

I'd have implants like those of Alastair Reynolds 'Conjoiners'.They are a bit like the Borg, but not fascistic cyborgs. They are more of a neurally linked anarchist collective, sharing thoughts and skills and memory.They also have sensory enhancement to make their drab surroundings a mass of colurful and magically meaningful experience. They also possess somatic control over pain,and mental control over fear.They have concepts and experiences that unaugmented humans can't even begin to imagine due to their neural linkage to each other and to machinery. I'd love to be part of something like that.

Quote from: AnthrobotI'd have implants like those of Alastair Reynolds 'Conjoiners'.They are a bit like the Borg, but not fascistic cyborgs. They are more of a neurally linked anarchist collective, sharing thoughts and skills and memory.They also have sensory enhancement to make their drab surroundings a mass of colurful and magically meaningful experience. They also possess somatic control over pain,and mental control over fear.They have concepts and experiences that unaugmented humans can't even begin to imagine due to their neural linkage to each other and to machinery. I'd love to be part of something like that.

Hmm, the bit about them being able to alter their preception of their surroundings sounds a little like what the new cylons do in the new BSG: They "project" the world they want around them, so while walking down a basestar corridor, for example, they may percieve it as a path thru sunlit woods.

As to sharing skills, interesting idea. People with excellent memories and/or a great capacity to study and learn could have 'jobs' as students and others could tap their acquired skills. I had an idea like that for a job in Transhuman space, someone with an upslink implant could record his memories as he preformed skills, then edit the memory and sell it as a teaching/learning aid to those studying the same skills.

Quote from: Dominus NoxHmm, the bit about them being able to alter their preception of their surroundings sounds a little like what the new cylons do in the new BSG: They "project" the world they want around them, so while walking down a basestar corridor, for example, they may percieve it as a path thru sunlit woods.

As to sharing skills, interesting idea. People with excellent memories and/or a great capacity to study and learn could have 'jobs' as students and others could tap their acquired skills. I had an idea like that for a job in Transhuman space, someone with an upslink implant could record his memories as he preformed skills, then edit the memory and sell it as a teaching/learning aid to those studying the same skills.

Dominus, you sound almost like a reasonable human being in this post!:eek: :eek: :eek: swoon!

Personally I want to see implants that don't really do anything most of the time.  GPS locators mainly.  I would get one in a heartbeat.  If something ever happens my family would be able to locate me.  With the number of missing children now I would even get my son one.