Do the robot
Susannah Breslin is a guestblogger on Boing Boing. She is a freelance journalist who blogs at Reverse Cowgirl and is at work on a novel set in the adult movie industry.
R. U. Sirius sends word of the latest on going cyborgian. Whether you're a newly manufactured robosupermodel or a goth with a technofetish, man-made parts are the new black.
It turns out that the human body may adapt well to such Borg-like accessorization. A recent study in Current Biology by Alessandro Farné and Lucilla Cardinali of the University of Claude Bernard in Lyon, France suggests that the brain can incorporate cyborg additions -- a cyborg arm or other body part -- into its body schema.
"Since the origin of the concept of body schema, the idea of its functional plasticity has always been taken for granted, even if no direct evidence has been provided until now," says Farné. "Our series of experiments provides the first, definitive demonstration that this century-old intuition is true."
Using a mechanical grabber that extended their reach, subjects behaved as though their arms really were longer. What's more, they perceived touches delivered on the elbow and middle fingertip of their arm as if they were farther apart after using the grabbing tool.
"Strike a Pose, Cyborg!" (Thanks, RU!)
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I recently read an excellent book on the topic of body schema, here's the website: http://www.thebodyhasamindofitsown.com/
I loved the book; I thought I heard about it on BB but a quick search didn't turn up a hit.
I can't believe that bot in the video clip cost over $2M. The engineers did well with it, but for all that it does, they could have just bought one of those little toy robots for $200. The toy might actually do more. I hope I'm just ignorant about it and am missing something really great about that machine.
As an aspiring Brain-in-a-Jar, I must say that not only did I hate the Borg Queen control-fetish idiocy, but I have always wanted to rewrite the Borg origin story as a triumph of ingenuity and technology over infirmity, with unintended consequences of course! Those always happen.
One of the best literary examples is Anne McCaffrey's "The Ship Who Sang" It's definitely worth a read if you're interested in this topic.
-- GimpWii