None of them knew they were robots

[substitute]

Theodore Berger, a USC biomedical engineer, is working on an artificial hippocampus. The microchip goes in the brain and routes traffic properly to improve patients with Alzheimer's, strokes, epilepsy etc.

Crazy shit. Right now they have a test bed for a "cortical prosthesis", and Berger estimates implant use in 10-15 years.

Comments

[baconmeteor.livejournal.com]

A mechanical hippopotamus? Is nothing sacred?

[substitute.livejournal.com]

Someone in my circle of friends pointed out once that you could reduce all of Rage Against The Machine songs by yelling MECHANICAL HIPPO! MECHANICAL HIPPO! over and over again.

How is Conrad?

[(Anonymous)]

How is Conrad? Conrad seems o.k. by my standards. Is he still lonely? Guessing so; perhaps review of entries would more informatively answer, but seems my artificial conscious is insufficiently interested in reading, for whatever reasons. Still, like thinking Conrad o.k. better than thinking Conrad not o.k. Be o.k., Conrad, o.k.? I'll gladly promise you a substantive entry at some future date of my artificial hippocampus' choosing if you will send me a real hamburger guided to me by a microchip today.

This might sound creepy, but...

[vanmojo.livejournal.com]

Is this something that might represent a new therapeutical avenue for you?

If I am understanding what I have been reading in your brain thread, your problems are more substantive than just "fscked up childhood, inability to cope with adult issue." I mean, that's the kind of stuff I deal with. You, apparently, have actual wiring issues interfering with the rest of it...

If that is the case, could a cerebral prosthetic at a certain location, like the hippocampus, produce results that could obviate some of the larger internal monsters you are battling?

Sorry, I may just be grasping at straws here, but I really have been rooting for you ...

mojo sends

Re: This might sound creepy, but...

[substitute.livejournal.com]

It's possible that in the next 10-15 years some brain implant stuff might be useful for my problems; I hope to have them largely conquered by other means, of course. Vagal nerve stimulators have had some weirdly huge successes with intractable depression, for example. It's such alpha technology now that the only reason to do it is if you want to kill yourself all the time 24/7 and nothing works, but for those people it's been worth the risk.